-
When the London Company sent out its first expedition to begin colonizing Virginia on December 20, 1606, it was by no means the first European attempt to exploit North America. -
Would-be colonists arrived in the Chesapeake Bay from England in April 1607. On board were 105 men, including 40 soldiers, 35 "gentlemen," and various artisans and laborers. -
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. -
Almost from the start, investors in the Virginia Company in England were unhappy with the accomplishments of their Jamestown colonists. They, therefore, sought a new charter, which the king granted. -
In the 1730s, England founded the last of its colonies in North America. The project was the brainchild of James Oglethorpe, a former army officer. -
Until the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, few colonists in British North America objected to their place in the British Empire. -
Even after the repeal of the Stamp Act, many colonists still had grievances with British colonial policies. -
After the Boston Massacre and the repeal of most of the Townshend Duties (the duty on tea remained in force), a period of relative quiet descended on the British North American colonies. Even so, the crises of the past decade had created incompatible mindsets on opposite sides of the Atlantic. -
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. -
In May 1787, 55 men from twelve states met in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. -
The reform efforts of the 1830s and 1840s are evidence of the belief held by many citizens that just as society is the creation of the people, the improvement of society rests with the people. -
Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements along the Missouri River. -
Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860 and 1864. -
Following the 1860 election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, eleven southern states eventually seceded from the Federal Union in 1861. They sought to establish an independent Confederacy of states in which slavery would be protected. Northern Unionists, on the other hand, insisted that secession was not only unconstitutional but unthinkable as well. The result was a costly and bloody civil war. -
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. -
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. -
The Great Depression began in 1929 when, in a period of ten weeks, stocks on the New York Stock Exchange lost 50 percent of their value. -
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. -
John F. Kennedy, a wealthy Democratic senator from Massachusetts, was elected president in 1960, defeating Vice President Richard Nixon. -
On September 11, as the World Trade Center towers fell, the impact on the securities industry was major. Excluding emergency workers and airline passengers, over 70% of persons killed that day in New York City worked in the financial services industry. -
On November 8, 2016, Mr. Trump was elected President in the largest Electoral College landslide for a Republican in 28 years. Mr. Trump won more than 2,600 counties nationwide, the most since President Ronald Reagan in 1984. He received the votes of more than 62 million Americans, the most ever for a Republican candidate.