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A historical timeline of the United States political landscape from 1784-2017
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A series of protests in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt.
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A constitutional convention took place in Philadelphia
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Chartered a government for the Northwest Territory, provided a method for admitting new states to the Union from the territory, and listed a bill of rights guaranteed in the territory.
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The United States constitution comes into effect
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George Washington was inaugurated as President in New York City
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Washington was reelected President. John Adams was chosen as Vice President.
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Considered the first United States Supreme Court case of significance and impact
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The battle took place ending the Northwest Indian War with the Western Confederacy.
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Extended the residence requirement for persons seeking naturalization and reserving the right of naturalization to white people.
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Bars the federal government from hearing suits brought against a state by a citizen of another state or of a foreign country
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A defendant jailed for a capital offense can be released on bail.
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Cannot issue a writ of mandamus compelling a district court judge to proceed in a case when that judge feels he has insufficient evidence to do so
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Tennessee, formerly Southwest Territory, was admitted as the sixteenth state.
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U.S. presidential election, 1796: Adams was elected President. Thomas Jefferson was elected Vice President.
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George Washington, the American revolutionary leader and first president of the United States, dies of acute laryngitis at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia
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Adams signed into law an act establishing the Library of Congress and moving the national capital from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.
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The Slave Trade Act of 1800, which forbade residents and citizens of the United States from investing in or serving aboard a ship engaged in the business of transporting slaves into the United States, was signed into law.
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Home Tax Rebellion and, in Deitsch, the Heesses-Wasser Uffschtand, was an armed tax revolt among Pennsylvania Dutch farmers between 1799 and 1800. Adams issued a general amnesty to all participants in the rebellion.
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American forces arrived to expel French forces from Curaçao.
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Ohio, formerly the Northwest Territory, becomes the 17th state.
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Alexander Hamilton is fatally wounded.
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U.S. presidential election: Jefferson is reelected President; George Clinton is elected Vice President.
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U.S. presidential election: James Madison is elected president. Clinton is reelected as Vice President.
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Louisiana becomes the 18th state
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A military conflict that lasted from June 1812 to February 1815, fought between the United States of America and the United Kingdom, its North American colonies, and its Native American allies.
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U.S. presidential election: Madison is reelected President; Elbridge Gerry is elected United States Vice President.
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British troops burn Washington, D.C. but are forced back at Baltimore.
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U.S. presidential election, 1816: James Monroe is elected President. Daniel D. Tompkins is elected Vice President.
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Indiana becomes the 19th state
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Mississippi becomes the 20th state
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Illinois becomes the 21st state
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Alabama becomes the 22nd state
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The state of Maine was admitted to the Union
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Missouri becomes the 24th state.
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United States presidential election, 1824: John Quincy Adams was elected president by the House, winning thirteen of twenty-four states.
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U.S. presidential election: Andrew Jackson is elected President. Calhoun continues as Vice President.
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Arkansas becomes the 25th state.
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U.S. presidential election: Van Buren is elected President, Richard Mentor Johnson Vice President.
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Michigan becomes the 26th state.
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The Florida Territory was admitted to the union as the state of Florida
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Great Fire of Pittsburgh: A fire in Pittsburgh burned roughly a third of the city and killed two.
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The United States Naval Academy was founded.
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Iowa becomes the 29th state.
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The gold rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California
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The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the war.
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Wisconsin becomes the 30th state.
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The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, eliminating the last civil and political rights of escaped slaves and imposing serious penalties for harboring or failing to arrest fugitives.
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Minnesota becomes the 32nd state.
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Oregon becomes the 33rd state.
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United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln is elected President of the United States.
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South Carolina seceded from the Union.
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Kansas becomes the 34th state.
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The Battle of Fort Sumter was the first battle of the American Civil War.
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The first battle of the American Civil War, fought in Virginia near Washington, D.C. The surprising victory of the Confederate army humiliated the North and forced it to prepare for a long war.
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Jefferson Davis is elected President of the Confederacy.
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General Robert E. Lee is placed in command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
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Second Battle of Bull Run: The battle takes place.
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Halted the Confederate advance on Maryland for the purpose of gaining military supplies.
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Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in those states that had seceded.
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Pro-Union counties which had seceded from Virginia become the 35th state West Virginia.
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Union victory that stopped Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North. More than 50,000 men fell as casualties during the 3-day battle, making it the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War
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The Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibits federal and state governments from denying the right to vote to any citizen on the basis of "race, color or previous condition of servitude," was ratified.
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North Dakota, South Dakota becomes the 39th and 40th states.
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Montana becomes the 41st state
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Washington becomes the 42nd state.
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Idaho becomes the 43rd state.
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Wyoming becomes the 44th state.
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Utah becomes the 45th state.
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New Mexico was admitted to the Union, becoming the 47th
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Arizona was admitted to the Union, becoming the 48th state.
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Riots in Los Angeles, spurred by the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the beating of Rodney King, took place, which resulted in over fifty deaths and $1 billion in damage
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The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting changes to Congressmen's salaries from taking effect until after an election of Representatives, was ratified
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United States presidential election, 1992: Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton was elected President, defeating incumbent George H. W. Bush and Texas businessman Ross Perot.
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A truck bomb exploded in the parking garage under the World Trade Center in Manhattan, killing six people and injuring 1,042 others
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The Don't ask, don't tell policy, prohibiting openly gay and bisexual people from serving in the military, was signed into law
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The North American Free Trade Agreement was signed by the United States
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The 1994 Northridge earthquake, striking the Northridge, Los Angeles area, killed fifty-seven people and leaving 20,000 others homeless; causing $20 billion in damage and being the costliest earthquake in U.S. history
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224 were killed in bombings in Tanzania and Kenya
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Two teenage students murdered 13 other students and teachers at Columbine High School.
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Along with the rest of the world, the United States prepared for the possible effects of the Y2K bug in computers, which was feared destined to cause computers to become inoperable and wreak havoc
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First inauguration of George W. Bush: George W. Bush was inaugurated the forty-third President of the United States
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September 11 terrorist attacks: Nineteen terrorists hijacked four planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing 2,996 people and injuring over 6,000
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The United States launched an invasion of Afghanistan
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The USA PATRIOT Act, increasing law enforcement agencies' ability to conduct searches in cases of suspected terrorism, was signed into law
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The United States Department of Homeland Security was created
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In Iraq, deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured by United States special forces
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U.S. presidential election, 2004; President George W. Bush was reelected
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A hurricane devastated the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama coastlines killing at least 1,836 people and causing $81 billion in damage
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A South Korean student shot and killed thirty-two other students and professors before killing himself.
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U.S. presidential election, 2008: Barack Obama was elected the forty-fourth President of the United States. Becomes first African-American President
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Al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden was killed by United States forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
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Major United States stock market indices dropped in value by some two and a half trillion dollars.
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A devastating hurricane wreaks havoc for the Eastern United States coast. There were many states severely impacted by the hurricane, especially New York and New Jersey, which took a direct hit from the storm.
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United States presidential election, 2012: Barack Obama is reelected as president.
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Two pressure cooker bombs explode during the Boston Marathon
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New building, 1 World Trade Center, opens in New York City.
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President Obama announces a restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time since 1961.
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Protests and rioting occur in Baltimore, Maryland after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody.
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Gay marriage is fully legalized in all 50 states.
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Donald Trump wins the 2016 presidential election and becomes the forty-fifth president of the United States.
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Inauguration of Donald Trump, Donald Trump is inaugurated as the forty-fifth president of the United States
