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Would-be colonists arrived in Chesapeake Bay from England in April 1607. On board were 105 men, including 40 soldiers, 35 "gentlemen," and various artisans and laborers.
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Those living in the area where Jamestown was settled must have had mixed feelings about the arrival of the English in 1607. One of their first reactions was hostility based on their previous experience with Spanish explorers along their coastline.
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In the 1730s, England founded the last of its colonies in North America. The project was the brain child of James Oglethorpe, a former army officer.
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In the first eighteen months of armed conflict with the British (the conflict would not become a "war for independence" until July 4, 1776), Washington had begun to create an army and forced the British army in Boston to evacuate that city in March 1776.
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The Continental victory at Saratoga in 1777 and the Treaty with the French in 1778 transformed the war, especially for the British.
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In May 1787, 55 men from twelve states met in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation.
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In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States.
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In 1861, the United States faced its greatest crisis to that time.
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Beginning in the early 1870s, railroad construction in the United States increased dramatically.
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In 1862, President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation opened the door for African Americans to enlist in the Union Army. Although many had wanted to join the war effort earlier, they were prohibited from enlisting by a federal law dating back to 1792.
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In the decades following the Civil War, the United States emerged as an industrial giant.
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In the early 1900s, the United States entered a period of peace, prosperity, and progress. In the nation's growing cities, factory output grew, small businesses flourished, and incomes rose.
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War broke out in Europe in the summer of 1914, with the Central Powers led by Germany and Austria-Hungary on one side and the Allied countries led by Britain, France, and Russia on the other.
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The automobile transformed the lives of people living in the United States.
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The widespread prosperity of the 1920s ended abruptly with the stock market crash in October 1929 and the great economic depression that followed.
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Even during "Hard Times" and wartime, people need to be entertained. The American people in the 1930s and 1940s were no exception.
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Between 1930 and 1940, the southwestern Great Plains region of the United States suffered a severe drought.
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In the summer of 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor of New York, was nominated as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party.
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On December 7, 1941, following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. Three days later, after Germany and Italy declared war on it, the United States became fully engaged in the Second World War.
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The entry of the United States into World War II caused vast changes in virtually every aspect of American life.
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John F. Kennedy, a wealthy Democratic senator from Massachusetts, was elected president in 1960, defeating Vice President Richard Nixon.
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Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, outlining the procedures for filling vacancies in the
presidency and vice presidency. -
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr.,
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Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as the 39th president
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Space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members. It is the worst accident in the history of the U.S. space program. U.S.
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Two hijacked jetliners ram twin towers of World Trade Center in worst terrorist attack against U.S. A third hijacked plane flies into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashes in rural Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people die in the attacks. U.S. and Britain launch air attacks against targets in Afghanistan after Taliban government fails to hand over Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks.
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Space shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board
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After months of campaigning and primary races, Barack Obama and John McCain are finally chosen as the presidential nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively