US History Timeline By a_hobbit 1492 Christopher Columbus discovers America 1607 Founding of Jamestown Period: 1756 to 1763 French and Indian War 1773 Boston Tea Party 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord 1776 Declaration of Independence was Signed 1781 Battle of Yorktown 1787 The Constitutional Convention 1793 Invention of the cotton gin 1798 The Alien and Sedition Acts 1803 Louisiana Purchase Period: 1812 to 1814 War of 1812 The war officially ended with the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814, but the last battle associated with the war was on January 8, 1815, just over two weeks after the treaty was signed. 1820 Missouri Compromise 1829 Andrew Jackson's election Period: 1831 to 1850 Trail of Tears 1837 Telegraph was invented Period: 1837 to 1842 Panic of 1837 Period: 1846 to 1848 Mexican-American War 1850 Compromise of 1850 1861 Firing on Fort Sumter 1863 The Emancipation Proclamation 1863 Organization of the Standard Oil Trust 1865 Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse 1865 Lincoln's Assassination Period: 1866 to 1869 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments 1868 Andrew Johnson's Impeachment 1876 Patent of the Telephone 1880 Patent of the Electric Lightbulb 1892 Homestead Strike 1894 Pullman Strike 1898 Spanish-American War 1901 Theodore Roosevelt Becomes President 1903 First Airplane Flight