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Confederate States Formed
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded from the Union to join South Carolina in forming the Confederate States. Their secession was driven by the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. -
Fort Sumter
Shots were fired on Fort Sumter to begin the first battle of the Civil War. This is notably the set beginning date for the war. After this four more states joined the Confederacy. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln gives the Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves in Union controlled areas. This helped slaves no longer be property and many ran away to Union territory and joined the fight. -
Gettysburg Adress
President Lincoln gave this famous speech after the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. The speech starts out "Four score and seven years ago." This is the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
This was the sinking of a British ship by Germans in which Americans were on board. This dragged the U.S. deeper into WW1. Many historieans say this is the cause for America getting involved but crash course disagrees and explained that the U.S. was already involved in many ways like financial aid. -
Declaring War WWI
This is when the U.S. officially declared war on Germany in WW1 and they were officially in the war. America had already been helping in many ways before this. -
Selective Service Act
This act meant that every male citizen of age had to enlist in the military and could be called upon. Not everyone was called into duty but anyone could be if the cuntry needed. -
The Treaty of Versailles
This treaty ended WWI and rested the majority of the blame for the war on Germany with harsh raparations. Because of this treaty, it gave rise to future events that would lead directly into WWII. -
Peacetime Draft
This was when the U.S. drafted an army even though we weren't officially in war yet. Clearly we knew that we were about to declare war and wanted to be ready. -
Pearl Harbor
This is when Japan bombed the U.S. and killed thousands of Americans on American soil. This brought us to officially declare war on Japan. -
Declaration of War WWII
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. declared war on Japan along with several other countries that also declared war on Japan. Three days later Germany declared war on the U.S. and a few hours later the U.S. responded by declaring war on Germany. -
D-Day
D-Day is the popular name for the allied invasion of Normandy. This operation began the invasion of Western German occupied lands and contributed to the liberation of France and Allies' victory. -
The Marshall Plan
This plan was signed by the U.S. to give billions of dollars in economic aid to Europe for WWII damages. The plan gave european states around $13 billion and was divided among participant states based on per capita. -
Korean War
The U.S. helped South Korea fight off attacks from North Korea and China due to the threat of Communist spread. The war arose due to the division of Korean soon after the ending of WWII and tensions of the Cold War that were developing. -
Vietman War Start
The Vietnam War was fought between the Soviet and Chinese backed North Vietnam, and the U.S. backed South Vietnam. This was another war in which America sought to resist and prevent the spread of communism. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
This was where the Soviet Union made an agreement to send missiles to Cuba but the U.S. established a military blockade to prevent this. After tense negotiations, the U.S. and the Soviet Union agrred to withdraw the missiles if the U.S. never invaded Cuba like that again.
