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Jamestown
Jamestown was the first permanent British settlement in North America. The Virginia Company of London established Jamestown. -
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the first legislative assembly of elected representatives in North America. Was established by the Virginia Company of London and had its first meeting in Jamestown. -
Start of Slavery
Slavery had been practiced in British North America from early colonial days, and was firmly established by the time of the United States' Declaration of Independence -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard ship on November 11, 1620 -
Yorktown
British defeat at Yorktown effectively ended the Revolutionary war. -
French and Indian War
The war was fought primarily between the colonies of British America and New France, with both sides supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and France, who declared war on each other in 1756. -
Proclamation of 1763
The proclamation, in effect, closed off the frontier to colonial expansion. The King and his council presented the proclamation as a measure to calm the fears of the Indians, who felt that the colonists would drive them from their lands as they expanded westward. -
Stamp Act
required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. In other words they taxed all legal documents. -
Boston Massacure
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British regulars. -
Boston Tea Party
After officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor -
1st Continental Congress
Was a convention of delegates from twelve colonies (Georgia was not present) that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -
2nd Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the 13 colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -
Lexington and Concord
Were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. -
Declaration of Independence
Statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. -
Critical Period
A time right after the American Revolution where the future of the newly formed nation was in the balance. -
Articles of Confederation
Was an agreement among the 13 founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. -
The Treaty of Paris
ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on one side and the United States of America and its allies on the other. -
Land Ordinence of 1785
was a resolution written by Thomas Jefferson (delegate from Virginia) calling for Congress to take action. The land west of the Appalachian Mountains, north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River was to be divided into ten separate states. -
Shay's Rebellion
Was an armed uprising that took place in central and western Massachusetts in 1786 and 1787. -
Annapolis Convention
Was a meeting in 1786 at Annapolis, Maryland, of 12 delegates from five states (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia) that unanimously called for a constitutional convention. -
Constitutional Convention
Addressed problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. -
The Great Compromise
Was an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. -
3/5ths Compromise
A compromise between Southern and Northern states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in which three-fifths of the enumerated population of slaves would be counted for representation purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives. -
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
The act created a system of government for the Northwest Territory. It also specified how the various parts of the Northwest Territory could become states. -
Judiciary Act of 1787
Was a landmark statute adopted on September 24, 1789, in the first session of the First United States Congress. It established the U.S. federal judiciary. -
Washington's Presidency
Entered office with the full support of the national and state leadership, and established the executive and judicial branches of the federal government of the United States. -
Bill of Rights Signed
The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. -
Cotton Gin
A machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. -
Adam's Presidency
Was the second president of the United States, having earlier served as the first vice president of the United States. An American Founding Father,[3] Adams was a statesman, diplomat, and a leading advocate of American independence from Great Britain. -
Gabe Prosser Revolt
Gabriel Prosser, was a literate enslaved blacksmith who planned a large slave rebellion in the Richmond area in the summer of 1800. -
Jefferson's Presidency
Carried out what Jefferson called the "Revolution of 1800", as he attempted to put into action the principles of his Democratic-Republican Party. -
Marbury vs. Madison
Was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court formed the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States under Article III of the Constitution. -
Louisiana Purchase
Was the acquisition by the United States of America in 1803 of 828,000 square miles (2,140,000 km2) of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana. The U.S. paid 50 million francs ($11,250,000) -
War of 1812
It was a 32-month military conflict between the United States on one side, and on the other Great Britain, its colonies and its Indian allies in North America. -
McCulloch Vs. Maryland
Was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The state of Maryland had attempted to impede operation of a branch of the Second Bank of the United States by imposing a tax on all notes of banks not chartered in Maryland. -
Susan B. Anothony
Was a prominent American civil rights leader and feminist who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States -
Missouri Compromise
It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a policy of the United States introduced on December 2, 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention. -
Gibbons vs. Ogden
held that the power to regulate interstate commerce was granted to Congress by the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. -
Age of the Common Man
It is also known as the age of democracy. It is often considered to have begun at the beginning of Andrew Jackson's Presidency. -
Jackson's Presidency
He expanded the spoils system during his presidency to strengthen his political base. -
Indian Removal Act
The act authorized him to negotiate with the Native Americans in the Southern United States for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their homelands. -
Haymarket Square
Haymarket Square in Boston is an open-air fruit and vegetable market near the North End, Government Center, West End and Faneuil Hall Marketplace. -
Nat Turner Revolt
Was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, during August 1831.[1] Led by Nat Turner, rebel slaves killed anywhere from 55 to 65 white people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the American South. -
Battle of the Alamo
Was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar -
Battle of San Jacinto
Fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas . -
US Annexes Texas
In 1845, the United States of America annexed the Republic of Texas and admitted it to the Union as the 28th state. -
Mexican War
Was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Revolution. -
CA Gold Rush
When gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. -
Seneca Falls Convention
Was an early and influential women's rights convention, the first to be organized by women in the Western world, in Seneca Falls, New York. -
Knigths of Labor
The Knights promoted the social and cultural uplift of the workingman, rejected Socialism and radicalism, demanded the eight-hour day, and promoted the producers ethic of republicanism. -
Compromise of 1850
The compromise, drafted by Whig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and brokered by Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas, avoided secession or civil war and reduced sectional conflict for four years. -
Fugitive Slave Law
As part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a "slave power conspiracy". It declared that all runaway slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" -
Kansas - Nebraska Act
Created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing white male settlers in those territories to determine through popular sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory. -
Dred Scott Case
Court held that African Americans, whether slave or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court. -
Old Immigrants
Old immigration – historians in the past have used the designations “old immigration” and “new immigration” to distinguish between those people who came from northern and western Europe (the old immigrants) and southern and eastern Europe (the new immigrants). -
Election of 1860
The election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860 and served as the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. -
Battle of Fort Sumter
Was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Acts were several United States federal laws that gave an applicant ownership of land, typically called a "homestead", at little or no cost. -
Battle of Antietam
Was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. -
Emancipation Proclamation
It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion. -
Battle of Vicksburg
Was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. -
Gettysburg Address
Is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known in American history.[4] It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War -
Battle of Gettysburg
The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war's turning point. -
Lincolns Assassination
Abraham Lincoln was shot on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The assassination occurred five days after the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, General Robert E. Lee, surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army of the Potomac. -
13th Amendment
Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. -
New Immigrants
The "new immigrants" came during the period of intense industrial development known as the gilded age as well as the reaction to this growth during the progressive era. This period immediately following the Civil War and extending up until the 1920's. -
Reconstruction Act of 1867
A key feature of the Acts included the creation of five military districts in the South, each commanded by a general, which would serve as the acting government for the region. -
Election of 1867
It was the first presidential election to take place after the American Civil War, during the period referred to as Reconstruction. -
14th Amendment
The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. -
15th Amendment
Prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". -
Jim Crow Laws
Were racial segregation laws enacted between 1876 and 1965 in the United States at the state and local level. -
Reservation System
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. -
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882
It was one of the most significant restrictions on free immigration in US history, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. -
Americna Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was the first federation of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in May 1886 -
Dawes Act
it authorized the President of the United States to survey American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Landmark federal statute on United States competition law passed by Congress in 1890. It prohibits certain business activities that federal government regulators deem to be anticompetitive, and requires the federal government to investigate and pursue trusts. -
Progressive Movement
The Progressive Era was a period of social activism and political reform in the United States, that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political machines and bosses. -
Appomattox Court House
Where the regional county government is located. -
Homestead Strike
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 battle was the second largest and one of the most serious disputes in U.S. -
Americna Railway Union
The American Railway Union (ARU), was the largest labor union of its time, and one of the first industrial unions in the United States. -
Pullman Strike
The strike and boycott shut down much of the nation's freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit, Michigan. The conflict began in Pullman, Chicago, on May 11 when nearly 4,000 factory employees of the Pullman Company began a wildcat strike in response to recent reductions in wages. -
Plessy V Ferguson 1896
Upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal". -
Treaty of Paris 1898
Was an agreement made in 1898 that resulted in the Spanish Empire's surrendering control of Cuba and ceding Puerto Rico, parts of the Spanish West Indies, the island of Guam, and the Philippines to the United States. -
Spanish-American War
A conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, the result of American intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. -
Boxer Rebellion
Was a violent anti-foreign and anti-Christian movement which took place in China between 1899 and 1901. -
Open Door Policy
The Open Door Policy is a concept in foreign affairs, initially used to refer to the United States policy in late 19th century and early 20th century that would grant multiple international powers with equal access to China, with none of them in total control of that country. -
immigration Restriction Act
The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which limited immigration to Australia and formed the basis of the White Australia policy. -
Platt Amendment
The Platt Amendment stipulated the conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba at the end of the Spanish-American War and defined the terms of Cuban-U.S. relations. -
Roosevelt Corollary
The Roosevelt Corollary is a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine that was articulated by President Theodore Roosevelt in his State of the Union Address in 1904 after the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–03. -
Great Migration
Was the movement of 6 million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that lasted up until the 1960s. -
16th Amendment
The Sixteenth Amendment (Amendment XVI) to the United States Constitution allows the Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on the United States Census. -
17th Amendment
The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote. -
Clayton Anti-Trust Act
Was enacted in the United States to add further substance to the U.S. antitrust law regime by seeking to prevent anticompetitive practices in their incipiency. -
U.S.enters WWI
Two days after the U.S. Senate votes 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the U.S. House of Representatives endorses the decision by a vote of 373 to 50, and the United States formally enters the First World War. -
Panama Canal
The canal in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean (via the Caribbean Sea) to the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. -
Federal Trade Commisssion Act
A bipartisan body of five members appointed by the president of the United States for seven-year terms. -
14 Points
Declared that World War I was being fought for a moral cause and calling for postwar peace in Europe. -
World War I
Was a global war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. -
18th Amendment
Effectively established the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the United States by declaring the production, transport and sale of (though not the consumption or private possession of) alcohol illegal. -
Treaty of Versailles
Was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. -
19th Amendment
The Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. -
Harlem Renaissance
The Movement also included the new African-American cultural expressions across the urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest United States affected by the Great Migration (African American), of which Harlem was the largest. -
Scopes Trial
A famous American legal case in 1925 in which a high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. -
Hoover
31st President of the United States -
The Great Depression
It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. -
Black Tuesday
Was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, when taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout. The crash signaled the beginning of the 10-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries. -
Dust Bowl
Was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. -
Assmilation Policy
The French taught their subjects that, by adopting French language and culture, they could eventually become French. -
FDR
An American lawyer and statesman who served as the 32nd President of the United States. -
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of domestic programs enacted in the United States -
FDIC
United States government corporation operating as an independent agency created by the Banking Act of 1933. -
CLO
A form of securitization where payments from multiple middle sized and large business loans are pooled together and passed on to different classes of owners in various tranches. -
Social Security Act
The act was an attempt to limit what was seen as dangers in the modern American life, including old age, poverty, unemployment, and the burdens of widows and fatherless children. -
Wagner Act
A foundational statute of US labor law which guarantees basic rights of private sector employees to organize into trade unions -
Fair Labor Standards Act
The FLSA introduced a maximum 44-hour seven-day workweek, established a national minimum wage, guaranteed "time-and-a-half" for overtime in certain jobs -
Non-Aggression Pact
A national treaty between two or more states/countries agreeing to avoid war or armed conflict between them and resolve their disputes through peaceful negotiations. -
War in Europe Begins
Invasion of poland, or the beginning of WWII. -
Selective Service Act WWII
It was the first peacetime conscription in United States history. This Selective Service Act required that men between the ages of 21 and 35 register with local draft boards. -
Germany invades Russia
The beginning of WWII -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harobor had the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet, and the Japanesse bombed pearl harbor to take out on of U.S's largest Fleet headquarters. -
U.S. declares war
A declaration of war is a formal declaration issued by a national government indicating that a state of war exists between that nation and another. -
Miracle of Midway
In the Pacific Theater of Operations was one of the most important naval battles of World War II. -
D-Day
The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. -
Korematsu vs. U.S.
Was a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II regardless of citizenship. -
Battle of the Bulge
Was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. -
Nuremburg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces after World War II -
V-E Day
Mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces, thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
Hiroshima A-Bomb
The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in August 1945. -
Nagasaki A-Bomb
The atomic bombing of the city of Nagasaki in Japan was conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II. -
Cold War
The Cold War was a sustained state of political and military tension between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States with NATO and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies in Warsaw Pact). -
Marshall Plan
Was the American initiative to aid Europe, in which the United States gave economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. -
Berlin Airlift
Was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under allied control. -
NATO
The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. -
Communist Takeover of China
Soviet Union spread communism to their neighboring countires including China. -
Korean War
A war between the Republic of Korea (South Korea), supported by the United Nations, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), at one time supported by China and the Soviet Union. -
Eisenhower
He was the 34th president of the United States and he was a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe -
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Were American citizens executed for conspiracy to commit espionage, relating to passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. -
Warsaw Pact
Was a mutual defense treaty among eight communist States of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. -
Division of Germany
Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany. -
Sputnik
Was the first artificial Earth satellite made by Russia, now in a space race with the U.S. -
U2 Incident
Was precipitated during the Cold War on 1 May 1960, during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower and during the leadership of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down over the airspace of the Soviet Union. -
JFK
American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until he was assassinated in November 1963. -
Berlin Wall
completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Was a 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other side. The crisis is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict. -
JFK Assassination
Kennedy was fatally shot by a sniper while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie, in a presidential motorcade.
