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Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated as the third president in Washington, DC
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James Madison is inaugurated as the fourth president
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U.S. declares war on Britain over British interference with American maritime shipping and westward expansion on June 18, 1812. British capture Washington, DC, and set fire to White House and Capitol on Aug. 1814.
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James Monroe is inaugurated as the fifth president
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Spain agrees to cede Florida to the United States .
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Landmark Supreme Court decision upholds the right of Congress to establish a national bank, a power implied but not specifically enumerated by the Constitution.
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In an effort to maintain the balance between free and slave states, Maine (formerly part of Massachusetts) is admitted as a free state so that Missouri can be admitted as a slave state; except for Missouri, slavery is prohibited in the Louisiana Purchase lands north of latitude.
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In his annual address to Congress, President Monroe declares that the American continents are henceforth off-limits for further colonization by European powers.
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Landmark Supreme Court decision broadly defines Congress's right to regulate interstate commerce.
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John Quincy Adams is inaugurated as the sixth president.
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Construction is begun on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first public railroad in the U.S.
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President Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, which authorizes the forced removal of Native Americans living in the eastern part of the country to lands west of the Mississippi River.
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Nat Turner, an enslaved African American preacher, leads the most significant slave uprising in American history. He and his band of about 80 followers launch a bloody, day-long rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. The militia quells the rebellion, and Turner is eventually hanged. As a consequence, Virginia institutes much stricter slave laws.
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William Henry Harrison is inaugurated as the ninth president.
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William Henry Harrison dies one month later after becoming president and is succeeded in office by his vice president, John Tyler.
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U.S. declares war on Mexico in effort to gain California and other territory in Southwest.
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War concludes with signing of Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
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Mexico recognizes Rio Grande as new boundary with Texas and, for $15 million, agrees to cede territory comprising present-day California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
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Zachary Taylor is inaugurated as the 12th president.
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Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and becomes one of the most effective and celebrated members of the Underground Railroad.
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Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act, establishing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The legislation repeals the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and renews tensions between anti- and proslavery factions.
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Abraham Lincoln is elected president.
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Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Washington, DC, and is succeeded by his vice president, Andrew Johnson.
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Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, prohibiting slavery.
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U.S. acquires Alaska from Russia for the sum of $7.2 million treaty concluded March 30.
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Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, giving blacks the right to vote.
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The first telephone line is built from Boston to Somerville, Mass.; the following year, President Hayes has the first telephone installed in the White House.
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James A. Garfield is inaugurated as the 20th president. He is shot on July 2 by Charles Guiteau in Washington, DC, and later dies from complications of his wounds in Elberon, N.J. (Sept. 19). Garfield's vice president, Chester Alan Arthur, succ
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Statue of Liberty is dedicated. American Federation of Labor is organized (Dec.).
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National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) is founded, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as president. Sherman Antitrust Act is signed into law, prohibiting commercial monopolies.
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Last major battle of the Indian Wars occurs at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. In reporting the results of the 1890 census, the Census Bureau announces that the West has been settled and the frontier is closed.
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Ellis Island becomes chief immigration station of the U.S.
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Grover Cleveland is inaugurated a second time, as the 24th president. He is the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
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Spanish-American War: USS Maine is blown up in Havana harbor (Feb. 15), prompting U.S. to declare war on Spain.
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Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish-American War Spain gives up control of Cuba, which becomes an independent republic, and cedes Puerto Rico, Guam, and (for $20 million) the Philippines to the U.S.
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U.S. acquires American Samoa by treaty with Great Britain and Germany.
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Galveston hurricane leaves an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 dead. According to the census, the nation's population numbers nearly 76 million.
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McKinley's second inauguration (March 4). He is shot (Sept. 6) by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, N.Y., and later dies from his wounds. He is succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.
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William Howard Taft is inaugurated as the 27th president. Mrs. Taft has 80 Japanese cherry trees planted along the banks of the Potomac River.
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Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as the 28th president. Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, providing for the direct election of U.S. senators by popular vote rather than by the state legislatures (April 8).
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First long distance telephone service, between New York and San Francisco, is demonstrated.
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U.S. agrees to purchase Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) for $25 million (treaty signed Aug. 14).
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Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (Nov. 7).
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First regular airmail service begins, with one round trip a day between Washington, DC, and New York (May 15).
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World War I: U.S. enters World War I, declaring war on Germany (April 6, 1917) and Austria-Hungary three years after conflict began in 1914. Armistice ending World War I is signed (Nov. 11, 1918).
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Treaty of Versailles, outlining terms for peace at the end of World War I, is rejected by the Senate.
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President Harding dies suddenly (Aug. 2). He is succeeded by his vice president, Calvin Coolidge. Teapot Dome scandal breaks, as Senate launches an investigation into improper leasing of naval oil reserves during Harding administration
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Tennessee passes a law against the teaching of evolution in public schools (March 23), setting the stage for the Scopes Monkey Trial (July 10–25)
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The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the national anthem.
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Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of her husband. She is reelected in 1932 and 1938.
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Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution, sometimes called the “Lame Duck Amendment,” is ratified, moving the president's inauguration date from March 4 to Jan. 20.
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Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, repealing Prohibition.
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Fair Labor Standards Act is passed, setting the first minimum wage in the U.S. at 25 cents per hour.
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F. Roosevelt's third inauguration. He is the first and only president elected to a third term.
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The Philippines, which had been ceded to the U.S. by Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War, becomes an independent republic.
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Congress passes foreign aid bill including the Marshall Plan, which provides for European postwar recovery.
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Soviets begin blockade of Berlin in the first major crisis of the cold war (June 24). In response, U.S. and Great Britain begin airlift of food and fuel to West Berlin.
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Soviets end blockade of Berlin, but airlift continues until Sept. 30.
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Vietnam War: Prolonged conflict between Communist forces of North Vietnam, backed by China and the USSR, and non-Communist forces of South Vietnam, backed by the United States. President Truman authorizes $15 million in economic and military aid to the French, who are fighting to retain control of French Indochina, including Vietnam. As part of the aid package, Truman also sends 35 military advisers.
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Korean War: Cold war conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces on Korean Peninsula. North Korean communists invade South Korea.
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President Truman, without the approval of Congress, commits American troops to battle.
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President Truman removes Gen. Douglas MacArthur as head of U.S. Far East Command.
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Eisenhower's second inauguration (Jan. 21). President sends federal troops to Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., to enforce integration of black students.
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Alaska becomes the 49th state (Jan. 3) and Hawaii becomes the 50th.
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President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act.
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State troopers attack peaceful demonstrators led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., as they try to cross bridge in Selma, Ala.
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President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices.
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In six days of rioting in Watts, a black section of Los Angeles, 35 people are killed and 883 injured (Aug. 11–16).
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Miranda v. Arizona: Landmark Supreme Court decision further defines due process clause of Fourteenth Amendment and establishes Miranda rights (June 13).
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Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, outlining the procedures for filling vacancies in the presidency and vice presidency (Feb. 10).
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Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. (April 4). Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, Calif.
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Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to land on the Moon (July 20).
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Four students are shot to death by National Guardsmen during an antiwar protest at Kent State University.
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The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
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House Judiciary Committee recommends to full House that Nixon be impeached on grounds of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress (July 27–30). Nixon resigns; he is succeeded in office by his vice president, Gerald Ford (Aug. 9). Nixon is granted an unconditional pardon by President Ford.
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President Carter announces that U.S. athletes will not attend Summer Olympics in Moscow unless Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan.
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Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th president. U.S. hostages held in Iran are released after 444 days in captivity (Jan. 20). President Reagan is shot in the chest by John Hinckley, Jr. (March 30). Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman Supreme Court justice (Sept. 25).
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Deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution passes without the necessary votes.
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Space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members (Jan. 28). It is the worst accident in the history of the U.S. space program.
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U.S. bombs military bases in Libya in effort to deter terrorist strikes on American targets (April 14).
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In a speech in Berlin, President Reagan challenges Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” and open Eastern Europe to political and economic reform (June 12). Reagan and Gorbachev sign INF treaty, the first arms-control agreement to reduce the superpowers' nuclear weapons.
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George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as the 41st president.
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U.S. annexes Hawaii by an act of Congress.
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President Bush signs legislation to provide for federal bailout of nearly 800 insolvent savings and loan institutions.
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U.S. forces invade Panama in an attempt to capture Gen. Manuel Noriega, who previously had been indicted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges.
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Persian Gulf War: U.S. leads international coalition in military operation (code named “Desert Storm”) to drive Iraqis out of Kuwait (Jan. 16–Feb. 28). Iraq accepts terms of UN ceasefire, marking an end of the war.
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The acquittal of four white police officers charged in the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King in Los Angeles sets off several days of rioting, leading to more than 50 deaths, thousands of injuries and arrests, and $1 billion in property damage.
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President Clinton orders missile attack against Iraq in retaliation for alleged plot to assassinate former President Bush.
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President Clinton denies having had a sexual relationship with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky (Jan. 17). President Clinton releases 1999 federal budget plan; it is the first balanced budget since 1969 (Feb. 2). In televised address, President Clinton admits having had a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
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U.S. launches missile attacks on targets in Sudan and Afghanistan following terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (Aug. 20). U.S. and Britain launch air strikes against weapons sites in Iraq.
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George W. Bush is inaugurated as the 43rd president (Jan. 20).
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Two hijacked jetliners ram twin towers of World Trade Center in worst terrorist attack against U.S.; a third hijacked plane flies into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashes in rural Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people die in the attacks.
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In his first State of the Union address, President Bush labels Iran, Iraq, and North Korea an “axis of evil” and declares that U.S. will wage war against states that develop weapons of mass destruction.
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Space shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board (Feb. 1). War waged by the U.S. and Britain against Iraq begins (March 19). President Bush signs $350 billion tax-cut bill.
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The minimum wage in the U.S. increases to $5.85, up from $5.15. It's the first increase in 10 years. The wage will increase 70 cents each year through 2009, when it reaches $7.25 an hour.
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Democrats perform well across the board in the November elections. Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected President, with 52.8% of the vote. In Congress, Democrats retain majorities in both the House and the Senate, with 57 Senators and 178 Representatives.
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On this date, Obama is sworn in as the United States president. He is the 44th president, But the First African American President in the USA
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President Obama signs executive orders closing all secret prisons and detention camps run by the CIA, including the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, and banning coercive interrogation methods.
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After confirming 20 cases of swine flu in the United States, including eight in New York City, the U.S. declares the outbreak a public health emergency (April 26).
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Michael Jackson, lifelong musician, pop singer, and superstar, dies at age 50 (June 25).
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Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy, a fixture in the Senate for 46 years, dies of brain cancer at the age of 77.
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A shooting at the Fort Hood army post in Texas kills 13 and injures 29. Ten of those killed are military personnel. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an army psychiatrist, is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder.
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A Nigerian man on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit allegedly attempted to ignite an explosive device hidden in his underwear. The alleged bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, told officials later that he was directed by the terrorist group Al Qaeda.
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The Senate votes 65 to 31 in favor of repealing Don't Ask, Don't tell. Eight Republicans side with the Democrats to strike down the ban. The repeal is sent to President Obama for his final signature. The ban will not be lifted officially until Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agree that the military is ready to enact the change and that it won't affect military readiness .
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Hurricane Sandy causes at least 132 deaths and an estimated 82 billion in damages, making it the second costliest hurricane in the U.S., behind Katrina. New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut are hardest hit.
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President Obama is re-elected, narrowly defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Democrats keep their majority in the Senate. Key victories for the Democrats include a win for Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin. Her victory makes her the first openly gay candidate to capture a seat in the Senate. The Republicans keep the majority in the House of Representatives with 232 seats to 191 for the Democrats.
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Multiple bombs explode near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people are killed and more than 170 people are injured.
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The Guardian receives information that reveals that the National Security Agency (NSA) is using PRISM to spy on the web activities, including email, of U.S. citizens. Through PRISM, a clandestine national security surveillance program, the NSA has direct access to Facebook, YouTube, Skype, Google, Apple, Yahoo and other websites.
