US History Timeline

By AlejandroGarcia
  • 1492

    The Discovery of America by Columbus

    1492 - sailed from Italy discovered new world, never touched North America, beginning of genocide of native population, beginning of European Christian domination of the Americas

  • The Settlement of Jamestown

    1607 - many who settled came to escape religious persecution, first permanent British settlement in North America

  • The French and Indian War

    1754 - British wanted to settle in the Ohio River Valley and trade Native Americans who lived there, French built forts to protect their trade with the Indians,

  • The Boston Tea Party

    1773 - A protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, ended most of the tea tossing when British shut down Boston Harbor, tea was paid for

  • The Battle of Lexington and Concord

    1775 - kicked off the American Revolutionary War, Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts.

  • The Declaration of Independence

    1776 - adopted by the Continental Congress, American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain. The Declaration summarized the colonists' motivations for seeking independence.

  • The Battle of Yorktown

    1781 - Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington as French and American forces trapped the British at Yorktown. The British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown ended the American Revolutionary War.

  • The Constitutional Convention

    1787 - address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation. The point of the event was decide how America was going to be governed. Although the Convention had been officially called to revise the existing Articles of Confederation, many delegates had much bigger plans.

  • The invention of the cotton gin

    1793 - The cotton gin is a machine that separates cotton seeds from cotton fiber. Invented by Eli Whitney, important invention because it dramatically reduced the amount of time it took to separate cotton seeds from cotton fiber.

  • The Alien and Sedition Acts

    1798 - passed by the Federalist Congress, signed into law by President Adams. These laws included new powers to deport foreigners as well as making it harder for new immigrants to vote.

  • The Louisiana Purchase

    1803 - land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.

  • The War of 1812

    1812 - United States declared war against Great Britain in reaction to three issues: the British economic blockade of France, the induction of thousands of neutral American seamen into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier.

  • The Missouri Compromise

    1819 - The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free.

  • Andrew Jackson’s Election

    1828 - It featured a re-match of the 1824 election, as President John Quincy Adams of the National Republican Party faced Andrew Jackson of the nascent Democratic Party. The election of 1828 returned the nation to a 2-party contest, rather than the homogenous Democratic-Republican election of 1824.

  • The invention of the telegraph

    1837 - Developed in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse (1791-1872) and other inventors, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations.

  • The Trail of Tears

    1838 - 16,000 Native Americans were marched over 1,200 miles of rugged land. Over 4,000 of these Indians died of disease, famine, and warfare. The Indian tribe was called the Cherokee and we call this event the Trail of Tears.

  • The Mexican-American War

    1846 - Mexican cavalry attacked a group of U.S. soldiers in the disputed zone under the command of General Zachary Taylor, killing about a dozen. They then laid siege to an American fort along the Rio Grande.

  • Seneca Falls Convention

    1848 - The American women's rights movement began with a meeting of reformers in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Out of that first convention came a historic document, the 'Declaration of Sentiments,' which demanded equal social status and legal rights for women, including the right to vote.

  • The Compromise of 1850

    1850 - Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished.

  • The Firing on Fort Sumter

    1861 - The major effect of the battle was that it marked the beginning of the American Civil War. The battle had other effects as well, after the Battle of Fort Sumter several new states seceded from the Union giving the Confederacy 11 states in total.

  • The Emancipation Proclamation

    1863 - the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

  • The Organization of Standard Oil Trust

    1863 - The Standard Oil Trust was formed in 1863 by John D. Rockefeller. ... In 1870, the company was renamed Standard Oil Company, after which Rockefeller decided to buy up all the other competition and form them into one large company. The company faced legal issues in 1890 following passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

  • Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse

    1865 - General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. ... But the resulting Battle of Appomattox Court House, which lasted only a few hours, effectively brought the four-year Civil War to an end.

  • Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination

    1865 - Shot in the head by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln died the next morning. US left with no president.

  • 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments

    13th (1865), 14th (1868), 15th (1870)- known collectively as the Civil War Amendments, were designed to ensure equality for recently emancipated slaves.

  • Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment

    1868 - the House of Representatives voted 126 to 47 (with 17 members not voting) in favor of a resolution to impeach the President for high crimes and misdemeanors. ... One week later, the House adopted eleven articles of impeachment against the President.

  • The completion of the transcontinental railroad

    1869 - golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, signaling the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. The transcontinental railroad had long been a dream for people living in the American West.

  • The invention of the electric light, telephone, and airplane

    1876, 1879, 1903 - Alexander Graham Bell patented the first practical telephone in the United States in 1876. When Alexander made the first wire transmission of intelligible speech. The electric light was not “invented” in the traditional sense in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison, although he could be said to have created the first incandescent light. Wilbur and Orville Wright were American inventors. In 1903 the Wright brothers achieved the first powered, sustained and controlled airplane flight.

  • The Pullman and Homestead Strikes

    1892, 1894 - Homestead strike. The Homestead strike, also known as the Homestead Steel strike, Pinkerton rebellion, or Homestead massacre, was an industrial lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892.

  • The Spanish-American War

    1898 - United States declared war against Spain following the sinking of the Battleship Maine in the Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. The U.S. also supported the ongoing struggle of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines for independence against Spanish rule.

  • Theodore Roosevelt becomes president

    1901- Theodore Roosevelt is widely regarded as the first modern President of the United States. The stature and influence that the office has today began to develop with TR. ... And although the presidency began to amass more power during the 1880s, Roosevelt completed the transition to a strong, effective executive.