-
Period: to
American Civil War
-
Homestead Act
Several United States federal laws that gave an applicant ownership of land, typically called a "homestead", at little or no cost. -
13th Amendment
Banned slavery and all involuntary servitude, except in the case of punishment for a crime. -
Period: to
Reconstruction
-
14th Amendment
The Citizenship Clause granted citizenship to All persons born or naturalized in the United States. -
Transcontinental Railroad Completed
Originally known as the "Pacific Railroad" was a 1,907-mile contiguous railroad line constructed in the United States between 1863 and 1869 west of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to connect the Pacific coast at San Francisco Bay with the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa. -
Industrialization Begins to Boom
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. -
15th Amendment
Granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
Boss Tweed rise at Tammany Hall
New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society -
Telephone Invented
Invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell -
Reconstruction Ends
A staggered process and the period of Republican control ended at different times in different states. With the Compromise of 1877, Army intervention in the South ceased and Republican control collapsed in the last three state governments in the South. -
Jim Crow Laws start in South
Any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950's. -
Period: to
Gilded Age
-
Light Bulb Invented
Alessandro Volta demonstrated a glowing electric wire in the year 1800, which arguably constitutes the first incandescent light. Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the first commercially practical incandescent light. -
3rd Wave of Immigration
-
Chinese Exclusion Act
Chinese were not allowed to enter the United States of America for 10 years. -
Pendleton Act
A federal law of the United States of America, which stipulates that government jobs are to be awarded on the basis of merit and also made it a law to be able to fire anyone for political reasons. -
Dawes Act
When Native Americans were recognized as citizens and not jut as a tribe member. -
Interstate Commerce Act
A United States federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry and mainly focused on all monopolies. -
Chicago's Hull House
A settlement house in the United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr and allowed recently incoming Europeans who were immigrants to stay there. -
Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth
An article written by Andrew Carnegie who dominated his way through the steel industry. -
Klondike Gold Rush
A migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of the Yukon in north-western Canada. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
A landmark federal statute in the history of United States antitrust law passed by Congress in 1890. -
How the Other Half Lives
Studies among the Tenements of New York was an early publication of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. -
Influence of Sea Power Upon History
A revolutionary analysis of the importance of naval power as a factor in the rise of the British Empire. -
Period: to
Progressive Era
-
Period: to
Imperialism
-
Homestead Steel Labor Strike
One of the most difficult episodes about Andrew Carnegie's life and one that revealed the steel magnate's conflicting beliefs regarding the rights of labor. -
Pullman Labor Strike
A nationwide railroad strike in the United States on May 11, 1894 and a turning point for US labor law. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, on May 18, 1896, by a seven-to-one majority advanced the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws. -
Annexation of Hawaii
-
Spanish American War
Fought between the United States and Spain in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba. -
Open Door Policy
A term in foreign affairs initially used to refer to the United States policy established in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, as enunciated in Secretary of State John Hay's Open Door Note. -
Assassination of President McKinley
President McKinley was shaking hands with the people in the public when he suddenly was shot by an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz. -
Period: to
Theodore Roosevelt
-
Wright Brother's Airplane
-
Panama Canal U.S. Construction Begins
-
The Jungle
The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
-
Model-T
Automobile produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. -
NAACP
-
Period: to
William Howard Taft
-
16th amendment
-
Federal Reserve Act
Act of Congress that created and established the Federal Reserve System. -
Period: to
Woodrow Wilson
-
17th amendment
-
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
-
Trench Warfare, Poison Gas, and Machine Guns
-
Period: to
World War 1
-
Sinking of the Lusitania
-
National Parks System
-
Zimmerman Telegram
-
Russian Revolution
-
U.S. entry into WW1
-
Battle of Argonne Forest
-
Armistice
-
Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points
-
Treaty of Versailles
-
18th amendment
Temperance has finally ended -
19th amendment
-
President Harding's Return to Normalcy
-
Harlem Renaissance
-
Red Scare
Afraid of communism -
Period: to
Roaring Twenties
-
Teapot Dome Scandal
-
Josepth Stalin Leads USSR
-
Scopes "Monkey" Trial
The Scopes Monkey trial began in Dayton, Tennessee when a high school teacher John Thomas Scopes was charged with violating Tennessee's law against teaching evolution instead of the divine creation of man. -
Mein Kampf published
-
Charles Lindbergh's Trans-Atlantic Flight
-
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre is the name given to the 1929 murder in Chicago of seven men of the North Side gang during the Prohibition Era. -
Stock Market Crashes "Black Tuesday"
-
Period: to
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the 1930s. -
Hoovervilles
A shanty town built during the Great Depression -
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
An act sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley and signed into law on June 17, 1930, that raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels. -
100,000 Banks Have Failed
-
Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
-
Period: to
The Holocaust
Also referred to as the Shoah, was a genocide during World War II in which Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, aided by its collaborators, systematically murdered some six million European Jews, around two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe. -
Dust Bowl
Also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s -
Rape of Nanjing
An episode during the Second Sino-Japanese War of mass murder and mass rape by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing -
Kristallnacht
-
Hitler invades Poland
A joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the Free City of Danzig, and a small Slovak contingent, that marked the beginning of World War II. -
Period: to
World War 2
It involved the vast majority of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. -
Germany Blitzkrieg attacks
-
Pearl Harbor
The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States' entry into World War II. -
Tuskegee Airmen
-
Navajo Code Talkers
Code talkers are people in the 20th century who used obscure languages as a means of secret communication during wartime. -
Executive Order 9066
-
Bataan Death March
The Bataan Memorial Death March is a challenging march through the high desert terrain of White Sands Missile Range, conducted in honor of the heroic service members who defended the Philippine Islands during World War II, sacrificing their freedom, health and, in many cases, their very lives. -
Invasion of Normandy (D-Day)
The Western Allies of World War II launched the largest amphibious invasion in history when they assaulted Normandy, located on the northern coast of France, on 6 June 1944. -
GI Bill
-
Liberation of Concentration Camps
The Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated on April 11, 1945 by four soldiers in the Sixth Armored Division of the US Third Army, commanded by General George S. Patton. -
Atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
-
Victory over Japan/Pacific (VJ/VP) Day
-
Victory in Europe (VE) Day
Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day or VE Day) was on 8 May 1945, the date when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. -
United Nations (UN) Formed
-
Germany Divided
-
Period: to
Harry S. Truman
-
Nuremberg Trials
-
Period: to
Baby Boom
A temporary marked increase in the birth rate, especially the one following World War II -
Truman Doctrine
-
Mao Zedong Established Communist Rule in China
-
22nd Amendment
Sets a limit on the number of times a person is eligible for election to the office of President of the United States -
Period: to
The Cold War
-
Marshall Plan
-
Berlin Airlift
-
Arab-Israeli War Begins
-
NATO Formed
-
Kim II-sung invades South Korea
-
UN forces push North Korea to Yalu River- the border with China
-
Chinese forces cross Yalu and enter Korean War
-
Period: to
Korean War
A war between North Korea and South Korea. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following a series of clashes along the border -
Period: to
1950s Prosperity
During the 1950's, it was easy to see what Churchill meant. The United States was the world’s strongest military power, its economy was booming, and the fruits of this prosperity consumer goods were available to more people than ever before. However, it was also an era of much great conflict. -
Period: to
1950s Prosperity
During the 1950's, it was easy to see what Churchill meant. The United States was the world’s strongest military power, its economy was booming, and the fruits of this prosperity consumer goods were available to more people than ever before. However, it was also an era of much great conflict. -
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Execution
United States citizens who were executed on June 19, 1953 after being convicted of committing espionage for the Soviet Union -
Armistice Signed
On Nov. 11, 1918, fighting in World War I came to an end following the signing of an armistice between the Allies and Germany that called for a ceasefire effective at 11 a.m. -
Period: to
Warren Court
-
Period: to
Dwight D. Eisenhower
An American Army general and statesman who served as the 34th President of the United States -
Ho Chi Minh Established Communist Rule in Vietnam
-
Hernandez v. Texas
-
Brown v. Board of Education
A landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. -
The Great Society
A set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The main goal was the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. -
Warsaw Pact Formed
-
Polio Vaccine
Vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis -
Rosa Parks Arrested
Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
-
Period: to
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. -
Interstate Highway Act
Took several years of wrangling, but a new Federal-Aid Highway Act passed in June 1956. The law authorized the construction of a 41,000-mile network of interstate highways that would span the nation. -
Elvis Presley First Hit Song
"Heartbreak Hotel" makes its climb up the charts on its way to #1 -
Sputnik 1
The first artificial Earth satellite -
Little Rock Nine
A group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. -
Leave it to Beaver First Airs on TV
One of the first prime-time sitcom series written from a child's point of view. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The result was the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The new act established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. -
Chicano Mural Movement Begins
Also called the Chicano civil rights movement or El Movimiento, was a civil rights movement extending the Mexican-American civil rights movement of the 1960's with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment. -
Kennedy versus Nixon TV Debate
The 44th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1960. In a closely contested election, Democrat John F. Kennedy defeated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican Party nominee. -
Affirmative Action
-
Bay of Pigs Invasion
1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. -
Peace Corps Formed
A volunteer program run by the United States government -
Mapp v. Ohio
A landmark case in criminal procedure, in which the United States Supreme Court decided that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against "unreasonable searches and seizures," may not be used in state law criminal prosecutions in state courts, as well as in federal criminal law prosecutions in federal courts as had previously been the law. -
Period: to
John F. Kennedy
Commonly referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963 -
Sam Walton Opens First Walmart
-
Cuban Missile Crisis
Also known as the October Crisis, the Caribbean Crisis, or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union -
The Feminine Mystique
A book written by Betty Friedan which is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. -
March on Washington
-
George Wallace Blocks University of Alabama Entrance
-
Kennedy Assassinated in Dallas, Texas
Assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade. -
Gideon v. Wainwright
A landmark case in United States Supreme Court history. In it, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states are required under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S -
Period: to
Lyndon B. Johnson
Often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th President of the United States -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
-
Escobedo v. Illinois
A United States Supreme Court case holding that criminal suspects have a right to counsel during police interrogations under the Sixth Amendment. -
24th Amendment
Prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. -
Israeli-Palestine Conflict Begins
-
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. -
Malcom X Assassinated
-
United Farm Worker's California Delano Grape Strike
-
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
Miranda v. Arizona
A landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court will be admissible at trial only if the prosecution can show that the defendant was informed of the right to consult with an attorney before and during questioning and of the right against self-incrimination before police questioning, and that the defendant not only understood these rights, but voluntarily waived them. -
Six Day War
Also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War, or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967 by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. -
Thurgood Marshall Appointed to Supreme Court
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Four years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Marshall as the United States Solicitor General. In 1967, Johnson successfully nominated Marshall to succeed retiring Associate Justice Tom C. Clark. -
Tet Offensive
-
My Lai Massacre
-
Martin Luther King Jr. Asassinated
American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. -
Vietnamization
US policy of withdrawing its troops and transferring the responsibility and direction of the war effort to the government of South Vietnam. -
Woodstock Music Festival
-
Draft Lottery
Selective Service System of the United States conducted two lotteries to determine the order of call to military service in the Vietnam War for men born from 1944 to 1950. -
Manson Family Murders
-
Tinker v. Des Moines
-
Apollo 11
-
Period: to
Richard Nixon
Nixon was the 37th president of the United States until he quit presidency being the only president to ever do that. -
Kent State Shootings
Occurred at Kent State University in the U. S. city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard on Monday, 4 May 1970. -
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
-
Invasion of Cambodia
Series of military operations conducted in eastern Cambodia during 1970 by the United States and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) during the Vietnam War. -
26th Amendment
The right for 18 year olds to vote -
Policy of Detente Begins
Name given to a period of improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union that began tentatively in 1971 -
Pentagon Papers
The Pentagon Papers was the name given to a top-secret Department of Defense study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam. -
Period: to
Jimmy Carter
-
Title IX
As a federal civil rights law in the United States of America, was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. -
Nixon Visits China
-
Watergate Scandal
A major political scandal that occurred in the United States during the early 1970's, following a break-in by five men at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. -
War Powers Resolution
Federal law intended to check the president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress. -
Roe v. Wade
-
OPEC Oil Embargo
-
Engaged Species Act
Signed on December 28, 1973, and provides for the conservation of species that are endangered or threatened throughout all or a significant portion of their range, and the conservation of the ecosystems on which they depend. -
First Cell-Phones
Motorola was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone. -
United States v. Nixon
A landmark United States Supreme Court case which resulted in a unanimous decision against President Richard Nixon, ordering him to deliver tape recordings. -
Ford Pardon Nixon
A presidential pardon of Richard Nixon (Proclamation 4311) was issued on September 8, 1974, by President Gerald Ford, which granted his predecessor Richard Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he might have committed against the United States while president. -
Period: to
Gerald Ford
-
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam on 30 April 1975. -
Bill Gates Starts Microsoft
Microsoft was founded on April 4, 1975, by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. -
National Rifle Associate (NRA) Lobbying Begins
An American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun rights. Founded in 1871, the group has informed its members about firearm-related bills since 1934, and it has directly lobbied for and against legislation since 1975. -
Steve Jobs Starts Apple
In 1975, the 20-year-old Jobs and Wozniak set up shop in Jobs' parents' garage, dubbed the venture Apple, and began working on the prototype of the Apple I. -
Communist Reinvestment Act of 1977
-
Camp David Accords
Signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David. -
Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty
Signed in a ceremony at the White House on March 26, 1979, and the three leaders—Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin—joined hands and shared big smiles. -
Period: to
Iran Hostage Crisis
-
Conservative Resurgence
-
"Trickle Down Economics"
-
War on Drugs
A Grammy Award winning American indie rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in 2005. -
Sandra Day O'Connor Appointed to U.S. Supreme Court
-
AIDS Epidemics
HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic. As of 2016, approximately 36.7 million people are living with HIV globally. In 2016, approximately half are men and half are women. There were about 1.0 million deaths from AIDS in 2016, down from 1.9 million in 2005. -
Period: to
Ronald Reagan
-
Marines in Lebanon
US service personnel -- including 220 Marines and 21 other service personnel -- are killed by a truck bomb at a Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon. Three hundred service members had been living at the four-story building at the airport in Beirut. -
Iran-Contra Affair
-
The Oprah Winfrey Show First Airs
Often referred to simply as Oprah, is an American syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986 to May 25, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. -
"Mr.Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!"
-
End of Cold War
During 1989 and 1990, the Berlin Wall came down, borders opened, and free elections ousted Communist regimes everywhere in eastern Europe. In late 1991 the Soviet Union itself dissolved into its component republics. With stunning speed, the Iron Curtain was lifted and the Cold War came to an end. -
Berlin Wall Falls
As the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. -
Period: to
George H.W. Bush
-
Germany Reunification
The process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic became part of the Federal Republic of Germany to form the reunited nation of Germany -
Iraq Invades Kuwait
Operation conducted by Iraq against the neighboring state of Kuwait, which resulted in the seven-month-long Iraqi occupation of the country. -
Period: to
Persian Gulf War
-
Soviet Union Collapses
-
Ms. Adcox Born
-
Rodney King
An African-American taxi driver who became known internationally as the victim of Los Angeles Police Department brutality, after a videotape was released of several police officers beating him during his arrest on March 3, 1991 -
Operation Desert Storm
The Gulf War, code-named Operation Desert Shield for operations leading to the buildup of troops and defense of Saudi Arabia and Operation Desert Storm in its combat phase, was a war waged by coalition -
Period: to
Bill Clinton
-
NAFTA Founded
-
Contract with America
The 1994 elections resulted in Republicans gaining 54 House and 9 U.S. Senate seats. When the Republicans gained this majority of seats in the 104th Congress, the Contract was seen as a triumph by party leaders such as Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, and the American conservative movement in general. -
O.J. Simpson's "Trial of the Century"
-
Bill Clinton's Impeachment
-
War on Terror
Also known as the Global War on Terrorism, is an international military campaign that was launched by the U.S. government after the September 11 attacks in the U.S. in 2001 -
USA Patriot Act
An Act of Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. With its ten-letter abbreviation (USA PATRIOT) expanded, the full title is “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”. -
9/11 (September 9, 2001)
The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. -
Period: to
George W. Bush
-
Period: to
War in Afghanistan
-
Itzel Born
-
NASA Mars Rover Mission Begins
NASA has started the assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO) for its Mars 2020 rover, a key milestone that involves bringing together parts from all over the world. -
Period: to
Iraq War
-
Facebook Launched
An American online social media and social networking service company based in Menlo Park, California. -
Hurricane Katrina
An extremely destructive and deadly tropical cyclone that is tied with Hurricane Harvey of 2017 as the costliest tropical cyclone on record. -
Saddam Hussein Executed
-
Iphone Released
On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs announced iPhone at the Macworld convention, receiving substantial media attention. Jobs announced that the first iPhone would be released later that year. On June 29, 2007, the first iPhone was released. -
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
-
Sonia Sotomayor Appointed to U.S. Secretary of State
-
Hillary Clinton Appointed U.S. Secretary of State
Served as the 67th United States Secretary of State, under President Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2013, overseeing the department that conducted the Foreign policy of Barack Obama. She was preceded in office by Condoleezza Rice, and succeeded by John Kerry. -
Period: to
Barack Obama
-
Arab Spring
-
Osama Bin Laden Killed
-
Space X Falcon 9
-
Donald Trump Elected President
The 45th and current President of the United States, in office since January 20, 2017. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality.
