Timeline: US history 1877-2008

Period: 1776 to 1860

Early American History

July 4, 1776: Declaration of Independence signed
September 17, 1787: Constitution written
December 15, 1791: Bill of Rights ratified

Period: 1860 to 1877

Civil War/ Reconstruction

1869: Transcontinental Railroad Completed
1876: Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell

Period: 1877 to 1900

The Gilded Age

1889: Hull House founded, first of many settlement houses
1896-1899: Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)

Period: 1890 to 1920

The Progressive Era

1906: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published
1909: NAACP Founded
1916: National Parks System created

Period: 1898 to 1910

Imperialism

1898: USS Maine explodes off the coast of Cuba, starting the Spanish American War
1898: Hawaii is annexed as a territory of the United States
1904-1914: Panama Canal Built

Period: 1914 to 1918

World War I

1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, starting World War I
1915: Sinking of the Lusitania
1917: Zimmerman Telegram intercepted by the British, warned the U.S. of a proposed ally between Mexico and Germany
1917: The United States enters WWI on the Allied side
1917: Bolshevik Revolution in Russia begins, causing Russian troops to exit the war
1918: Battle of Argonne Forest, considered the turning point of the war
1918: Germany surrenders to the Allied Powers

Period: 1920 to 1929

Roaring Twenties

1922: Teapot Dome Scandal uncovered by the Wall Street Journal
1925: Scopes Monkey Trial
1927: Charles Lindbergh makes history by making a nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris

Period: 1929 to 1939

Great Depression

929: Stock Market Crash
1930-1936: Dust Bowl
1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt elected
1932: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established
1933: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established
1934: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established
1935: Works Progress Administration (WPA) established

Period: 1939 to 1945

World War II

1939: Adolf Hitler invades Poland, starting WWII
1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor
1942: Battle of Midway
1942: Bataan Death March
1944: “D-Day” - Invasion of Normandy
1945: The atomic bomb, “Little Boy” is dropped in Hiroshima, Japan (August 6)
1945: The atomic bomb, “Fat Man” is dropped in Nagasaki, Japan, ending World War II (August 9)

Period: 1945 to 1960

Early Cold War

1945: United Nations formed
1948: Berlin Airlift
1949: NATO established
1950-1953: Korean War
1951: Rosenbergs trial
1952: First H-Bomb detonated by the United States
1955: Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine
1957: USSR launches Sputnik

Period: 1950 to 1970