-
10,000 years ago, the first people came tro the Americas over the Bering Strait from Siberia in Asia. -
The Vikings briefly visited and were the first known Europeans to do so. -
Christopher Columbus believed that he reached Eastern Asia, but later found out he had arrived in the Americas. This was the start of European Colonization. -
Jamestown, Virginia, marks the beginning of permanent English colonization in North America. This is recognized as one of the major milestones in American History. -
The first legal slave trade was in 1654 when plantation owners recognized the need for cheap labor. Slavery in the U.S was part of the Triangular Trade which consisted of the manufacturing of goods from England to Africa where they were exchanged for slaves. The slaves were then taken to America and sold. The materials that they manufactured at these plantations such as tobacco ,sugar and cotton were then taken back to England. -
Between 1700 and 1800, approximately 250,00 African slaves werre forcibly sent to the British Colonies in America. This marked as a significant expansion to the tranatlantic slave trade, due to the growing demands of free labor in plantations.
-
The U.S War of Independence, also known as the American Revolutionary War was a fight for the nations independence. After 8 years of conflict, the British finally granted the new nation complete independence.
-
The US wanted independence from the British crown, and wrote the Declaration of Independence, signed by the founding fathers, amoung them, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. This was the start of a war between the settlers and the British. -
George Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789 in New York City and became the first president of the U.S. -
Abraham Lincoln used his power for the freedom of the slaves. Because of this, a civil war broke out between the Northern and Southern states in 1861-1865. The Northern won this war and slavery was abolished, but Lincoln never got the chance to witness this due to his assisnation in 1865. Even after winning the rights to their freedom, African Americans were still not treated equally in the U.S.
-
Abraham Lincoln was brutally assisinated on the evening just days after the end of the Civil War. While attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C, he was shot in the head by John Wikes Booth who opposed Lincoln's policies and the abolition of slavery. Unfortunately Lincoln, never lived to see the final ratification.