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On August 3rd, 1492, Columbus set sail and was determined to go east by going west. He sailed with three boats, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina. They came upon Cuba, on October 12, 1492, but he mistook it for another country.
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Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was established on May 4th, 1607. Jamestown served as the capital of Virginia until 1699.
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Pilgrims sailed to America to escape religious persecution and oppression. Their ship, the Mayflower, reached Plymouth Rock in 1620.
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Also known as the Seven Years War, the French Indian War started in 1756 when Britain declared war against the French and their Indian allies. The War ended in 1763, with the British gaining Canada and Florida.
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In Boston, Massachusetts on December 16th, 1773, the Sons of Liberty wore disguises and boarded a ship that was transporting tea and dumped the tea into the Boston Harbor. This protest was in response to the Tea Act, colonists believed in “no taxation without representation”.
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Home to the Minutemen, Lexington and Concord served as the setting for the first engagements for the Revolutionary War. On April 19, 1775, the Minutemen fought against British troops, marking the first armed conflict between Britain and the colonies.
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The Declaration of Independence was adopted July 4, 1776. It was written by mainly Thomas Jefferson, consisting of a Preamble, General Argument, List of Grievances and a Formal Declaration to lay down the law of America.
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On February 21, 1787, Congress called for a convention in which delegates from the 13 states would attend. The Virginia and New Jersey plans were created and clashed in ideals.
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After a close match of ties, Jefferson eventually won against Burr in the Presidential election of 1800. Right before he went into office, the previous president, Adams, elected multiple judges in spite of Jefferson. This controversial action led to Marbury v Madison which resulted with the Judiciary Act of 1789.
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The Louisiana Territory was bought by the United States from France in 1803 for $11.2 million. It was 828,000 square miles and contained what we know the states today as Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, and with portions of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana.
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Passed in 1820, the Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. The Compromise was used as an attempt to balance slavery throughout the United States, so the Missouri Compromise Line was drawn prohibiting all states above that line, with the exception of Missouri, from having slavery. The Missouri Compromise was eventually repealed with the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1853.
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Following Jefferson’s presidency, the race between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams began in 1824. After losing to John Quincy Adams due to the House of Representatives decision, Jackson ran again in 1828. Jackson won and became the 7th president of the United States thanks to the votes of “the common man”.
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Signed by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, the Indian Removal Act was put in place to move southern Indian tribes to the west of the Mississippi River. Resistance from the Indian tribes was unsuccessful. The Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee-Creek, Seminole and Cherokee nations were the Five Tribes most affected by the Act, and the Cherokee being forced upon the Trail of Tears.
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The Compromise of 1850 allowed for popular sovereignty in new territories to decide whether or not they would be a free or slave state. This angered southerners and created tension between members of congress on the controversial issue of slavery.
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Free African-Americans and white abolitionists worked together to help slaves escape the south to come to be free in the north. The south was losing slaves due to the underground railroad, angering slave owners.
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Free-state forces and Pro-slavery forces collide, a battle is fought between the opposing sides in the Kansas Territory. This battle was like a preview to the Civil War and demonstrated the violence and bloodiness of the Civil War.
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act split the Kansas-Nebraska territory and the Missouri Compromise was repealed. Popular sovereignty was then used to determine whether or not they would become a slave state. This resulted in the establishment of two opposing legislatures within the Kansas territory, increasing tension between members on the subject of slavery.
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On March 6, 1857, Dred Scott v Sandford, a Supreme Court case, declared that slaves were not citizens and they had no right to sue. The Dred Scott decision was eventually repealed by the 13th and 14th amendments.
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John Brown’s plan was to instigate a slave rebellion. He goes with 18 men but is then surrounded by about 200 guys under the leader, Lee. Northerners portrayed Brown as a hero while the South portrayed his as a madman. This creates a cultural divide about how northerners view southerners and vice versa.
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Lincoln emerged victorious with his ideals of abolishing slavery. People who supported slavery were extremely unhappy with the election results. Southern states did not want to give up slavery, eventually many southern states seceded one by one, dividing the United States into the Union and the Confederacy.
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Abraham Lincoln became the sixteenth president of the United States in March of 1861. He led the Union through the Civil War and ended with the abolition of slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation. He Presidency ended along with his life when he was assassinated in April of 1865.
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On April 12, 1861, Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina, marking the first major battle of the Civil War. With no deaths, besides the day after, the battle ended as a victory for the south.
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Following the attack on Fort Sumter, on July 21, 1861, at Manassas Junction in Virginia, the Battle of Bull Run began. The battle was a confederate win with strong defense thanks to “Stonewall Jackson”, a confederate general. The battle resulted in 3,000 Union deaths and 1,750 Confederate deaths.
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In May of 1862, Confederates captured 2,000 Union soldiers and confiscated 10,000 rifles. This gave the South the upper hand with prisoners and more resources which the south had been lacking.
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On February 6, 1862, General McClernand initiated the battle on Fort Donelson, located 10 miles from the Cumberland River in Tennessee. The confederates failed to break through Grant’s lines so they surrendered. The battle was the first major Union win of the Civil War, resulting in 2,700 northern and 1,400 southern casualties.
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The Battle of Shiloh began on April 6th, 1862 with the confederates driving the Union army back towards Pittsburg Landing. The Union won with a surprise attack on the confederates, forcing them to retreat to Corinth. The resulting death toll was 13,000 for north and 10,000 for the south.
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On september 17, 1862, on a 30-acre corn field, Union forces nearly doubled the amount of southern forces. After many hours of fighting, Burnside’s troops claimed the bridge, but Confederate forces pushed back. The battle ended with 23,000 casualties and was considered a Union win because they managed to keep the south out of the north.
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With the end of the Civil War, a conclusion to slavery had to be drawn. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, abolishing slavery in the south. This controversial proclamation angered many southerners but it brought lots of hope to abolitionists and slaves.
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Considered to be the most important battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg lasted from July 1st to July 3rd of 1863. After hours and days of fighting, the Union infantry gave the final blow, leaving barely half of the confederates alive. After losing 28,000 men, Lee retreated with his decimated army, giving the Union a major win.
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On July 4th, 1863, Vicksburg was considered to be the Union’s most successful campaigns of the war. The Union won five battles and captured 6,000 prisoners. Grant eventually captured Vicksburg with his 70,000 troops, giving the Union yet another win.
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Taking place on Morris Island on July 18th, 1863, Fort Wagner was a confederate defense that was attacked by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry and other regiments entered the fort. This was a great win for the Union, but it was most significant by demonstrating the abilities of the first black regiment and proved that black soldiers could fight.
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Sherman’s March to Sea lasted an entire month, from November 15 until December 21, 1864. The March was 285 miles from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. Union General William T Sherman and his 60,000 soldiers destroyed everything on their path, forcing the confederates to flee and surrender. With this victory, the Union finally ended the war later with Appomattox Courthouse.
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In Virginia on April 9, 1865, Confederates surrendered to the Union. With the south lacking the proper resources like food, equipment and weapons and the Union outnumbering them, the Confederates were left with no other choice.
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At Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C. on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box suring the play “Our American Cousin” and fatally shot Lincoln in the back of the head. The President died the next morning while the Booth escaped.
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Following the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865 to abolish slavery in the United States. It was a great success for african american slaves and abolitionists.
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Signed by President Arthur on May 6, 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited all Chinese immigration until it was repealed in 1943. The chinese played a major factor in building the First Transcontinental Railroad and in the California Gold Rush. This was the first law to restrict immigration of an ethnic group in the United States.
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Passed by congress in 1980, the Sherman AntiTrust Act was made to prevent inflation of prices through competition. The intention of the act was to protect the consumer and improve competition.
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On May 18, 1896, winning by a 7 to 1 vote, Plessy v Ferguson upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation. It pushed the “separate but equal” doctrine by making public facilities segregated by race. As long as the facilities were equal in quality, it was acceptable, but this rule was typically brushed off and ignored.
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The Spanish American War was declared on April 25, 1898 following the explosion of the USS Maine. Yellow Journalism was a key cause of the war, it pushed the United States into the war by exploiting, distorting and exaggerating news. The war was fought mainly for Cuban independence from Spain, but the war resulted with the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898 and Spain losing control of Puerto Rico, Philippines, Guam in addition to Cuba.
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Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th president of the United States in March 1901 until 1909. As a strong influence in the Progressive Movement, Roosevelt actively supported labor rights, consumer protection, political reform and environmental regulations. His biggest success was the “Square Deal” which revolved around the “three Cs”: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection.
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The Panama Canal is a 48 mile waterway that runs through Panama, it connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The United States took on the project in 1904 to demonstrate the nation’s ingenuity and skilled workers.
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Woodrow Wilson became the 28th president of the United States in 1913 until 1921. Wilson led the United States during World War 1, at first maintaining isolationist stance, but eventually declared war after Germany sent the Zimmerman Telegram and unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917. At the end of the war, Wilson proposed his solution to reconstruction called Wilson’s Fourteen Points in 1918.
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Beginning July 28th, 1914, World War 1 sparked with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo by a terrorist organization called Black Hand Gang. Many countries were eventually pulled into the conflict, forming two sides of alliances, the Allies: France, Great Britain and Russia; and the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy. The United States eventually joined in 1917 after conflict with Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare and the sending of the Zimmerman Telegram
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Ending with the armistice of November 11, 1918, World War 1 was concluded on June 28th, 1919 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The death toll reached twenty-two million soldiers and civilians and twenty million people were wounded. Wilson’s Fourteen Points were created laying down the rules for world peace and resulted in the League of Nations being created.
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Signed in Versailles on June 28th, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles formally concluded World War 1. It took six months at the Paris Peace Conference to negotiate this Treaty. The treaty required Germany to accept the responsibility for causing all the loss and damage which turned into a very important and controversial provision in later years.
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The Harlem Renaissance took place in Harlem, New York throughout the 1920s. It marked a new era for African-American culture, with new music and art style, it was a major cultural, social and artistic transformation.
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On January 17, 1920, the eighteenth amendment prohibited the production, sale and transport of alcohol in the United States. The amendment proved not very effective with the amount of alcohol consumption reaching the same rate it was before prohibition and crimes rising. In result, the Eighteenth Amendment was later repealed by the ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933.
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On August 18, 1920, the nineteenth amendment was ratified allowing women the right to vote. This Amendment Marked a huge victory for the Women’s Suffrage Movement.
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On June 8th, 1925, the supreme court case, Gitlow v New York, surrounded the first and fourteenth amendment and selective incorporation. The controversy was about whether or not state governments should be held to the same standards as federal governments in regards to regulating speech. Gitlow was a member of the Communist Party and was arrested for the “Left Wing Manifesto” that advocated violence against the government. The court’s decision upheld Gitlow’s conviction 7 to 2.
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The Stock Market Crash of 1929 began on October 29th, also known as Black Tuesday, was the most devastating crash in United States history. The Crash, blamed to be cause by overproduction, marked the beginning of the 12-year financial crisis, the Great Depression.
