-
33,000-8000BCE
First humans cross into Americas from Asia
-
5000 BCE
Corn is developed as a staple crop in the Middle East
-
1200 BCE
Corn planting reaches present-day American Southwest
-
1000 CE
- Norse voyagers discover and briefly settle in NE N America
- Corn cultivation reaches MidW and SE Atlantic seaboard.
-
1100 CE
Height of Mississippian settlement at Cahokia
-
1100-1300CE
Christian crusades arouse European interest in the E
-
1295
Marco Polo returns to Europe
-
Late 1400s
Spain becomes united
-
1488
Dias rounds S tip of Africa
-
1492
Columbus lands in the Bahamas
-
1494
Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal
-
1498
- Da Gama reaches India
- Cabot explores NE coast of N America for England.
-
1513
Balboa claims all lands touched by the Pacific Ocean for Spain
-
1517
Martin Luther begins Protestant Reformation
-
1513, 1521
Ponce de Leòn explores Florida
-
1519-1521
Cortes conquers Mexico for Spain
-
1522
Magellan's vessel completes circumnavigation of the world
-
1524
Verrazano explores E seaboard of N America for France
-
1532
Pizarro crushes Incas
-
1534
Cartier Journeys up the St. Lawerence River
-
1536
John Calvin of Geneva publishes Institutions of Christian Religion
-
1539-1542
De Soto explores the SE and discovers Mississippi River
-
1540-1542
Coronado explores present-day SW
-
1542
Cabrillo explores California for Spain
-
1558
Elizabeth I becomes queen of England
-
1565
Spanish build fortress at St. Augustine
-
1577
Drake circumnavigates the globe
-
1585
Raleigh founds "lost colony" at Roanoke Island
-
1588
England defeats Spanish Armada
-
1565-1590
English crush Irish uprising
-
Late 1500s
Iroquois Confederacy founded, according to Iroquois legend
-
1598
Edict of Nantes (Repealed in 1685)
-
1598-1609
Spanish under Onate conquer Pueblo peoples of Rio Grande valley
-
1603
James I becomes king of England
-
1604
Spain and England sign peace treaty
-
1607
Virginia colony founded at Jamestown
-
1608
Champlain colonizes Quebec for France
-
1609
Spanish found New Mexico
-
1612
Rolfe perfects tobacco culture in Virginia
-
1614
First Anglo-Powhatan war ends
-
1619
- First Africans arrive in Jamestown
- Virginia House of burgesses est.
-
1620
Pilgrims sail on the Mayflower to Plymouth Bay
-
1624
- Virginia becomes royal colony
- Dutch found New Netherland
-
1625
Population of English colonies in America about 2000
-
1629
Charles I dismisses Parliament and persecutes Puritans
-
1630
Puritans found Massachusetts Bay Colony
-
1634
Maryland colony founded
-
1635-1636
Roger Williams convicted of heresy and founds Rhode Island colony
-
1636
Harvard College founded
-
1635-1638
Connecticut and New Haven colonies founded
-
-
1638
Anne Hutchinson banished from Massachusetts colony
-
1639
Connecticut's Fundamental Orders drafted
-
1640s
Large-scale slave-labor system est. in English West Indies
-
1642-1648
English Civil War
-
1643
- New England Confederation formed
- Louis XIV becomes king of France
-
1644
Second Anglo-Powhatan War
-
1649
- Act of Toleration in Maryland
- Charles I beheaded; Cromwell rules England
-
1650
William Bradford completes Of Plymouth Plantation
1st Navigation Laws to control colonial commerce
-
1655
New Netherland conquers New Sweden
-
1660
Charles II restored to English throne
-
1661
Barbados slave code adopted
-
1662
Half-Way Covenant for Congregational Church membership est.
-
1664
- England seizes New Netherland from Dutch
- E and W Jersey colonies founded
-
1670
- Carolina colony created
- Virginia assembly disfranchises landless freemen
-
1675-1676
King Philip's War
-
1676
Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia
-
1680
Popé's Rebellion in New Mexico
-
1681
William Penn founds Pennsylvania colony
-
1682
La Salle explores Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico
-
1680s
- French expedition down Mississippi River under La Salle
- Mass expansion of slavery in colonies
-
1686
Royal authority creates Dominion of New England
-
1688-1689
Glorious Revolution overthrows Stuarts and Dominion of New England
-
1689-1697
King William's War (War of the League of Augsburg)
-
1689-1691
Leisler's Rebellion in NY
-
1692
Salem witch trials in Massachusetts
-
1693
College of William and Mary founded
-
1696
Board of Trade assumes governance of colonies
-
1698
Royal African Company slave trade monopoly ended
-
1700-1800
New Indian peoples move onto Great Plain
-
1700
Pop. of English colonies in America about 250,000
-
1701
Yale College founded
-
1702-1713
Queen Anne's War (War of Spanish Succession)
-
1711-1713
Tuscarora War in N Carolina
-
1712
- North Carolina formally separate from South Carolina
- NYC Slave revolt
-
1715-1716
Yamasee War in S Carolina
-
1718
French found New Orleans
-
1721
Smallpox inoculation introduced
-
1732
1st edition of Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack
-
1733
Georgia colony founded
-
1734
Jonathan Edwards begins Great Awakening
-
1734-1735
Zenger free-press trial in NY
-
1738
George Whitefield spreads Great Awakening
-
1739
- S Carolina slave revolt
- War of Jenkin's Ear
-
1744-1748
King George's War (War of Austrian Succession)
-
1746
Princeton College founded
-
1747
Shaker movement founded in Manchester, England
-
1750
Industrial Revolution begins in Britain
-
1754
Washington Battles French on frontier Albany Congress
-
-
1757
Pitt emerges as leader of British government
-
1756-1763
Seven Year's war (French and Indian War)
-
-
1760
Britain vetoes S Carolina anti-slave trade measures
-
1763
- Peace of Paris
- Pontiac's uprising
- Proclamation of 1763
- Seven Years War ends
-
1764
- Paxton Boys march on Philadelphia
- Brown College founded
- Sugar Act
-
1766
- Rutgers College founded
- Declaratory Act
-
1767
- Townshend Act
- NY Legislature suspended by Parliament
-
1768-1771
Regulator protests
-
1768
British troops occupy Boston
-
1769
- Serra founds first California Mission at San Diego
- Dartmouth College founded
-
1770s
1st Shaker communities est. in NY
-
1770
- Boston Massacre
- All Townshend Acts except tea tax repealed
-
1772
Committees of correspondence formed
-
1773
- British E India Company granted tea monopoly
- Governor Hutchinson's action provoke Boston Tea Party
-
1774
- "Intolerable Acts"
- Quebec Act
- 1st Continental Congress; calls for abolition of slavery.
- The Association boycotts British goods
-
1775
- Battles of Lexington and Concord
- 2nd Continental congress
- Americans capture British garrison at Ticonderoga and Crown Point
- Battle of Bunker Hill
- King George III formally proclaims colonies in rebellion
- Failed invasions of Canada
- Philadelphia Quakers found world's 1st anti-slavery society.
-
1776
- Paine's Common SenseDeclaration of Independence
- Battle of Trenton
- New Jersey temporarily gives women right to vote
-
1777
- Battle of Brandywine
- Battle of Germantown
- Battle of Saratoga
- Articles of Confederation adopted by 2nd Continental Congress
-
1778
- Formation of French-American Alliance
- Battle of Monmouth
-
1778-1779
Clark's victories in the West
-
1780
Massachusetts adopts 1st constitution drafted in convention and ratified by popular vote
-
1781
- Battle of Kind's Mountain
- Battle of Cowpens
- Greene leads Carolina campaign
- French and Americans force Cornwallis to surrender at Yorktown
- Articles of Confederation put into effect
-
1782
North's ministry collapses in Britain
-
1783
- Treaty of Paris
- Military officers form Society of the Cincinnati
-
1784
Treaty of Fort Stanwix
-
1785
Land Ordinance of 1785
-
1786
- Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
- Shay's Rebellion
- Meeting of five states to discuss revision of the Articles of Confederation
-
1787
- Northwest Ordinance
- Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
-
1788
Ratification by nine states guarantees a new government under the Constitution
-
1789
- Constitution formally put into effect
- Judiciary Act of 1789
- Washington elected president
- French Revolution begins
- Declaration of the Rights of Man (France)
-
-
1791
- Bill of Rights adopted
- Vermont becomes 14th state
- Bank of the U.S. created
- Exercise tax passed
- Toussaint L-Ouverture launches Haitian Revolution
- Samuel Slater builds first U.S. textile factory
-
1792
Washington reelected president
-
1792-1793
Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties formed
-
1793
- Louis XVI beheaded; radical phase of French Revolution
- France declares war on Britain and Spain
- Washington's Neutrality Proclamation
- Citizen Genet affair
- Eli Whitney invents cotton gin
-
1794
- Whiskey rebellion
- Battle of Fallen Timbers
- Jay's Treaty with Britain
- Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason
-
1795
- Treaty of Greenville :Indians cede Ohio
- Pinckney's Treaty with Spain
- University of N Carolina founded
-
1796
Washington's Farewell address
-
1797
- Adams becomes president
- XYZ affair
-
1798
- Alien and Sedition Acts
- Eli Whitney develops interchangeable parts for muskets
-
1798-1799
Virginia and Kentucky resolutions
-
1798-1800
Undeclared war with France
-
1800
- Convention of 1800 :peace with France
- Jefferson defeats Adams for presidency
- 2nd Great Awakening begins
- Gabriel slave rebellion in Virginia
-
1801
Judiciary Act of 1801
-
1801-1805
Naval war with Tripoli
-
1802
- Revised naturalization law
- Judiciary Act of 1801 repealed
-
1803
- Marbury v. Madison
- Louisiana Purchase
-
1804
- Haiti emerges as first independent black republic
- Jefferson reelected president
- Impeachment of Justice Chase
-
1804-1806
Lewis and Clark expedition
-
1805
- Peace treaty with Tripoli
- Battle of Trafalgar
- Battle of Austerlitz
-
1805-1807
Pike's explorations
-
-
1807
- Chesapeake affair
- Embargo Act; spurs American manufacturing
- Robert Fulton's first steamboat
- Britain abolishes slave trade
-
1808
- Madison elected president
- Congress outlaws slave trade
- Royal Navy forms W Africa Squadron
-
1809
Non-Intercourse Act replaces Embargo Act
-
1810
- Macon's Bill No. 2
- Napoleon announces (falsely) repeal of blockade decrees
- Madison reestablishes nonimportation against Britain
- Fletcher v. Peck ruling asserts right of Supreme court to invalidate state laws deemed unconstitutional
-
1811
- Battle of Tippecanoe
- Venezuela declares independence from Spain
- Cumberland Road construction begins
-
1812
- U.S. declares war on Britain
- Madison Reelected
-
1812-1813
American invasions of Canada fail
-
1813
- Battle of Thames
- Battle of Lake Erie
-
1814
- Battle of Horseshoe Bend
- Napoleon exiled to Elba
- British burn Washington DC
- Battle of Plattsburgh
- Treaty of Ghent signed ending war of 1812
-
1814-1815
- Hartford convention
- Congress of vienna
-
1815
- Battle of New Orleans
- Napoleon's army defeated at Waterloo
-
1816
- 2nd bank of the US founded
- Protectionist tariff of 1816
- Argentina declares independence from Spain
- Monroe elected president
-
1817
- Madison vetoes Calhoun's bonus bill
- Rush-Bagot agreement limits naval armament on Great Lakes
- Erie Canal construction begins
- American Colonization Society formed
-
1818
- Jackson invades Florida
- Chile in rebellion since 1810 declares independence from Spain
- Anglo-American Convention
-
1819
- Panic of 1819
- Spain cedes Florida to US in Adams Onis Treaty
- McCulloch v. Maryland
- Dartmouth college v. Woodward
- Jefferson founds University of Virginia
-
1820
- Missouri compromise
- Missouri and Maine admitted to Union
- Land act of 1820
- Monroe reelected
- New England missionaries arrive in Hawaii
-
1821
- Cohens v. Virginia
- Austria intervenes to crush popular uprising in Italy
- Cooper publishes The Spy his 1st successful novel
- Emma Willard est. Troy (NY) Female Seminary
-
1822
- Vesey slave conspiracy in Charleston S. Carolina
- Republic of Liberia est. in Africa
-
1823
- France intervenes to suppresses liberal government in Spain
- Secreatary Adams Proposes Monroe Doctrine
- Mexico opens Texas to US Settlers
-
1824
- Russo-American Treaty
- Gibbons v. Ogden
- Lack of electoral majority for presidency throws election into House of Representatives
-
1825
- Erie Canal completed
- House elects John Quincy Adams president
- New Harmony commune est.
-
1826
American Temperance Society founded
-
1828
- Tariff of 1828 (Tariff of Abomination)
- Jackson elected president
- The South Carolina Exposition published
- 1st railroad in the US
- Noah Webster publishes dictionary
- American Peace Society Founded
-
1829
Walker publishes Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World
-
1830s
Cyrus McCormick incents mechanical mower-reaper
-
1830
- Indian Removal Act
- July Revolution in France
- Joseph Smith founded Mormon Church
- Godey's Lady's Book first published
-
1830-1831
Finney conducts revivals in eastern cities
-
1831-1832
- Alexis de Tocqueville tours US
- Virginia legislature debates slavery and emancipation
-
1831
- Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia
- Garrison begins publishing The Liberator
-
1832
- "Bank War" Jackson vetoes bill to recharter Bank of US
- Reform Bill in Britain expands electorate
- Tariff of 1832
- Jackson defeats clay for presidency
-
1832-1833
S Carolina nullification crisis
-
1833
- Compromise Tariff of 1833
- Jackson removes federal deposits from Bank of US
- British abolish slavery in W Indies
- American Anti-Slavery Society formed
-
1834
- Anti-Catholic riot in Boston
- Abolitionist students expelled from Lane Theological Seminary
-
1835
- Lyceum movement flourishes
- US Post office orders destruction of abolitionist mail
- "Broadcloth Mob" attacks Garrison
-
1836
- Bank of US expires
- Specie Circular issued
- Bureau of Indian Affairs est.
- Battle of the Alamo
- Battle of San Jacinto
- Texas wins independence from Mexico
- Van Buren elected president
- House of Representatives passes Gag Resolution
-
1837
- Seminole Indians defeated and eventually removed from Florida
- US recognizes Texas republic but refuses annexation
- Panic of 1837
- John Deere develops steel plow
- Oberlin College admits female students
- Mary Lyon est. Mount Holyoke Seminary
- Emerson delivers "The American Scholar" address
- Mob kills abolitionist Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois
- Canadian rebellion and Caroline incident
-
1838-1839
Cherokee Indians removed on Trail of Tears
-
1839
- Weld publishes American Slavery as It IsSlave revolt on Amistad
- Aroostook War breaks out over Maine boundary
-
1840
- Independent treasury est.
- Harrison defeats Van Buren for presidency.
- President Van Buren est. 10-hour day for federal employees
- London anti-slavery convention refuses to recognize female delegates
- Antislavery Liberty party organized
-
1841
- Brook Farm commune est.
- Harrison dies after four weeks in office
- Tyler assumes presidency
-
1842
- Massachusetts declares labor unions legal in Commonwealth v. Hunt
- Webster-Ashburton treaty
-
1843
Dorothea Dix petitions Massachusetts legislature on behalf of the insane
-
1843-1868
Era of Clipper ships
-
1844
- Samuel Morse invents telegraph
- Anti-Catholic riot in Philadelphia
- Polk defeats Clay in "Manifest Destiny" election
- Caleb Cushing signs Treat of Wanghia with China
-
1845
- Douglass publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick DouglassUS annexes Texas
-
1845-1849
Potato famine in Ireland
-
1846
- Elias Howe invents sewing machine
- Walker Tariff
- Independent treasury restored
- US Settles Oregon dispute with Britain
- US and Mexico clash over TX boundary
- Kearny Takes Santa Fe
- Fremont conquers California
- Wilmot Provios passes House of Representatives
-
1846-1847
Mormon migration to Utah
-
-
1847
- Battle of Buena Vista
- Scott takes Mexico City
-
1848
- 1st general incorporation laws in NY
- Democratic revolutions collapse in Germany
- Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention held
- Oneida Community est.
- Free Soil party organized
- Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
- British seize port of San Juan del Norte in Nicaragua
- Taylor defeats Cass and Van Buren of pres.
-
1849
- American or Know-Nothing party formed
- California gold rush
-
1850
- Hawthrone publishes The Scarlet LetterFillmore assumes presidency after Taylor's death
- Compromise of 185o, including Fugitive Slave law
- Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Britain
-
1851
- London World's Fair
- Melville publishes Moby Dick
- Maine passes 1st law prohibiting liquor
- Australia gold rush
-
1852
- Cumberland Road completed
- Pierce defeats Scott for pres.
- Harrriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin
-
1853-1856
Crimean War in Russia
-
1853
Gadsden Purchase from Mexico
-
1854
- Commodore Perry opens Japan
- Ostend Manifesto proposes seizure of Cuba
- Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals Missouri Compromise of 1820
- Republican party organized
-
1855
Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass
-
1856
- William Walker becomes president of Nicaragua and legalizes slavery
- Buchanan defeats Fremont and Fillmore for pres.
- Sumner beaten by Brook in Senate chamber
- Brown's Pottawatomie Massacre
-
1856-1861
Civil war in "Bleeding Kansas"
-
1857
- Dred Scott decision
- Lecompton Constitution rejected
- Panic of 1857
- Tariff of 1857
- Hinton R. Helper publishes The Impending Crisis of the South
-
1858
- Cyrus Field lays first transatlantic cable
- Lincoln-Douglas debates
- Pike Peak gold rush
-
1859
- Brown raids Harpers Ferry
- Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of SpeciesNevada Comstock Lode discovered
-
1860
- Pony Express est.
- Lincoln wins four-way race for presidency
- S Carolina secedes from Union
- Crittenden Compromise fails
-
1861
- 1st transcontinental telegraph
- 7 seceding states form Confederate states of America
- Lincoln takes office
- Fort Sumter fired on (April 12)
- Four upper South states secede (April-June)
- Morrill Tariff Act Passed
- Trent affair
- Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus
- 1st battle of Bull Run
-
1862
- Confederacy enacts conscription
- Homestead Act
- Grant takes Fort Henry and Fort Donelson
- Battle of Shiloh
- McClellan's Peninsula Campaign
- Seven Days' Battles
- Second Battle of Bull Run
- Naval battle of Merrimack (Virginia) and Monitor
- Battle of Antietam
- Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
- Battle of Fredericksburg
- Northern army seizes New Orleans
- Congress authorizes transcontinental railroad
- Morrill Act provides public land for higher education
-
1862-1864
Alabama raids Northern shipping
-
1863
- Union enacts conscription
- NYC Draft riots
- National Banking System est.
- Final Emancipation Proclamation
- Battle of Chancellorsville
- Battle of Gettysburg
- Fall of Vicksburg
- Fall of Port Hudson
- Lincoln announces "10 percent" Reconstruction plan
- World's first subway system opens in London
-
1863-1864
Napoleon III installs Archduke Maximillian as emperor of Mexico
-
1864
- Alabama sunk by Union warship
- Sherman's march through Georgia
- Grant's Wilderness Campaign
- Battle of Cold Harbor
- Lincoln defeats McClellan for presidency
- Lincoln vetoes Wade-Davis Bill
- Sand Creek Massacre
- Nevada added to Union
-
1865
- Hampton Roads Conference
- Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox
- Lincoln assassinated
- 13th amendment ratified
- Johnson issues Reconstruction proclamation
- Congress refuses to seat Southern congressmen
- Freedman's Bureau est.
- Southern states pass Black Codes
-
1866
- Congress passes Civil Rights Bill over Johnson's veto
- Congress passes 14 amendment
- Johnson backed candidates lose congressional election
- Ex parte milligan case
- KKK Founded
- National Labor Union organized
- First working transatlantic telegraph cable
- American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) created
-
1867
- Reform Bill expands British electorate
- Reconstruction Act
- Tenure of Office Act
- US buys Alaska from Russia
- National Grange organized
-
1868
- Meiji Restoration in Japan
- Johnson impeached and acquitted
- Johnson pardons Confederate leaders
- Grant defeats Seymour for presidency
-
1869
- Fisk and Gould corner gold market
- Transcontinental railroad joined near Ogden Utah
- Knights of Labor organized
- Suez Canal completed
- Wyoming Territory grants women right to vote
-
1870
- 15 amendment ratified
- Standard Oil Company organized
-
-
1871
- Tweed scandal in NY
- Woodhill and Clafin's Weekly published
-
1872
- Freedman's Bureau ended
- Credit Mobilier scandal exposed
- Liberal Republicans break with Grant
- Grant defeats Greeley for presidency
- Metaphysical Club meets in Cambridge, Massachusetts
-
1873
- Panic of 1873
- Comstock Law
-
1874
- Woman's Christian Temperance Union organized
- Chautauqua education movement launched
- Impressionist artists debut in Paris
-
1875
- Whiskey Ring Scandal
- Civil Rights Act of 1875
- Resumption Act
-
1876
- Hayes-Tilden election standoff and crisis
- Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone
- John Hopkins University graduate school est.
- Battle of Little Bighorn
- Colorado admitted to Union
-
1877
- Reconstruction ends
- Compromise of 1877
- Railroad strikes paralyze nation
- Nez Perce war
-
1879
- Edison invents electric light
- Henry George published Progress and Poverty
- Dumbbell tenement introduced
- Mary Baker Eddy est. Christian Science
- Salvation Army begins work in America
-
1880
Garfield feats Hancock for presidency
-
1881
- Garfield assassinated; Arthur assumes presidency
- Booker T. Washington becomes head of Tuskegee Institution
- American Red Cross founded
- Barnum and Bailey first join to stage "Greatest Show on Earth"
- Helen Hunt Jackson publishes A Century of Dishonor
-
1882
- Chinese Exclusion Act
- First immigration-restriction laws passed
-
1883
- Civil Rights Cases
- Pendleton Act sets up Civil Service Commission
- Brooklyn Bridge completed
- Metropolitan Opera House built in NY
-
1884
- Cleveland defeats Blaine for presidency
- Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnFederal government outlaws Indian Sun Dance
-
1885
- Louis Sullivan builds first skyscraper in Chicago
- Linotype invented
- Canadian Pacific Railway, 1st transcontinental rail line, completed across Canada
-
1885-1890
Local chapters of Farmers' Alliance formed
-
1886
- Haymarket Square bombing Wabash case
- American Federation of Labor formed
- Statue of Liberty erected in NY harbor
-
1887
- Interstate Commerce Act
- American Protective Association (APA) formed
- Hatch Act supplements Morrill Act
- Dawes Severalty Act
-
1888
- Harrison defeats Cleveland for presidency
- Edward Bellamy publishes Looking Backward
- American all-star baseball team tours world
-
1889
- Jane Addams founds Hull House in Chicago
- Oklahoma opened to US citizen settlement
- Samoa crisis with Germany
- Pan-American Conference
-
1889-1890
N Dakota, S Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming admitted to Union
-
1890
- Homestead steel strike
- Coeur d'Alene (Idaho) silver miner's strike
- People's party candidate James B. Weaver wins 22 electoral votes
- Cleveland defeats Harrison and Weaver to regain presidency
- Sherman anti-trust act
- National American Women Suffrage Association formed
- Census Bureau declares frontier line ended
- Emergence of People's Party (populists)
- Mahan publishes The Influence of Sea Power upon History
-
1891
- Basketball invented
- Battle of Wounded Knee
- Construction of Trans-Siberian Railroad begins
- New Orleans Crisis with Italy
-
1892
- Populist party candidate James B. Weaver polls more than 1 million votes in presidential election
- Valparaiso crisis with Chile
- Sierra Club founded
-
1893
- Depression of 1893 begins
- Republicans regain House of Representatives
- Lillian Wald opens Henry Street Settlement in NY
- Anti-Saloon League formed
- World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago
- New Zealand grants women the right to vote
- Frederick Jackson Turner publishes The Significance of the Frontier in American History
- Prifbilof Islands dispute with Canada
- White planter revolt in Hawaii
- Cleveland refuses Hawaii annexation
-
1894
- Coxey's Army marches on Washington
- Pullman strike
-
1895
- Cubans revolt against Spain
- J.P. Morgan's banking syndicate loans $65 million in old to federal government
-
1895-1896
Venezuelan boundary crisis with Britain
-
1896
- Plessy v Ferguson legitimizes separate but equal doctrine
- Utah admitted to Union
- McKinley defeats Bryan for presidency
-
1897
- Library of Congress opens
- Dingley Tariff
-
1898
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman publishes Women and Economics
- Maine explosion in Havana harbor
- Spanish American war
- Teller Amendment
- Dewey's victory at Manila Bay
- Hawaii annexed
-
1899
- Kate Chopin publishes The Awakening
- Senate ratifies treaty acquiring Philippines
- Aguinaldo launches rebellion against US in Philippines
- 1st American Open Door note
- National Consumers League founded
-
1900
- Theodore Dreiser publishes Sister Carrie
- Gold Standard Act
- Hawaii receives full territorial status
- Foraker Act for Puerto Rico
- Boxer Rebellion and US Military expedition to China
- 2nd open door note
- McKinley defeats Bryan for presidency
-
1901
- US Steel Corporation formed
- Supreme Court Insular Cases
- Platt Amendment
- McKinley assassinated; Roosevelt becomes president
- Filipino rebellion suppressed
- Hay Pauncefote Treaty with Britain give US exclusive right to build Panama Canal
- Commission system est. in Galveston TX
- Progressive Robert La Follette elected governor of Wisconsin
- American Socialist Party Founded
-
1902
- US Troops leave Cuba
- Colombian senate rejects US proposal for canal across Panama
- Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell publish muckraking exposes
- Anthracite coal strike
- Newlands Act
-
1903
- Panamanian revolution against Columbia
- Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty gives US control of Canal Zone in newly independent Panama
- Department of Commerce and Labor est.
- Elkins Act
- Women's trade union league founded
- Wright brothers fly 1st airplane
- 1st Story-sequence motion picture
-
1904
- Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine
- Northern Securities case
- Roosevelt defeats Alton B. Parker for presidency
-
1904-1914
Construction of Panama Canal
-
1905
- US takes over Dominican Republic customs service
- Roosevelt mediates Russo-Japanese peace treaty
- Lochner v. NY
-
1906
- San Francisco Japanese education crisis
- Roosevelt arranges Algeciras Conference
- Hepburn Act
- Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle
- Meat Inspection Act
- Pure Food and Drug Act
-
1906-1909
US Marines occupy Cuba
-
1907
- Henry Adams privately publishes The Education of Henry AdamsOklahoma admitted to Union
- Great White Fleet makes world voyage
- "Roosevelt panic"
-
1907-1908
"Gentleman's Agreement" with Japan
-
1908
- Root-Takahira agreement
- Muller v. Oregon
- Taft defeats Bryan for presidency
- Aldrich-Vreeland Act
- Henry Ford introduces Model T
-
1909
Payne-Aldrich Tariff
-
1910
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People founded.
- Ballinger-Pinchot affair
- Washington State grants woman suffrage
-
1911
- Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire
- Standard Oil antitrust case
- US Steel Corporation antitrust suit
- California grants woman suffrage
-
1912
- Taft wins Republican nomination over Roosevelt
- Arizona Kansas and Oregon grant woman suffrage
- Children's Bureau est. in Department of Labor
- Wilson defeats Taft and Roosevelt for president
-
1913
- 16th amendment passed (income tax)
- 17th amendment passed (direct election of US senators)
- Federal Reserve Act
- San Francisco decides to build Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
- Underwood Tariff Act
- Huerta takes power in Mexico
-
1914
- Clayton Anti-Trust Act
- Federal Trade Commission est.
- US seizes port of Veracruz, Mexico
- WWI begins in Europe
-
1915
- La Follette Seaman's Act
- Lusitania torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat
- US marines sent to Haiti
- Germany declares submarine war area around British isles
- Council of National Defense est.
-
1916
- Sussex ultimatum and pledge
- US exports to European belligerents skyrocket
- Workingmen's Compensation Act
- Federal Farm Loan Act
- Warehouse Act
- Adamson Act
- Pancho Villa raids New Mexico
- Brandeis appointed to Supreme Court
- Jones Act
- US Marines sent to Dominican Repubic
- Wilson defeats Hughes for presidency
-
1917
- Puerto Ricans granted US citizenship
- US Buys Virgin Islands from Denmark
- Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare
- Zimmerman note
- Railroads placed under federal control
- US enters WWI
- Espionage Act of 1917
- Wilson calls for "peace without victory"
- Bolshevik Revolution
-
1918
- Wilson proposes 14 points
- Sedition Act of 1918
- Battle of Chateau-Thierry
- 2nd Battle of the Marne
- Meuse-Argonne offensive
-
1918-1919
- Armistice ends WWI
- Worldwide influenza pandemic
-
1919
- Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles
- Wilson's pro-League tour and collapse
- 18th amendment (prohibition of alcohol)
- 1st Senate defeat of Versailles Treaty
- Volstead Act
- Seattle general strike
- Anderson publishes Winesburg OhioAmerican Legion founded
- Chicago race riot
-
-
1920
- Women's Bureau est. in Department of Labor
- Final Senate defeat of Versailles Treaty after reconsideration
- 19th amendment (woman suffrage) passed
- Harding defeats Cox for presidency
- Radio broadcasting begins
- Fitzgerald publishes This Side of Paradise
- Lewis publishes Main StreetEsch-Cummins Transportation Act
- Merchant Marine Act
-
1921
- Sacco-Vanzetti trial
- Emergency Quota Act
- Bureau of the Budget created
- Veterans Bureau created
- Capper-Volstead Act
-
1922
- Lewis publishes Babbitt
- Eliot publishes The Waste Land
- Five-power Naval Treaty signed
- Four-power and nine-power treaties on the Far East
- Fordney-McCumber Tariff Law
-
1923
- Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) proposed
- Adkins v Children's Hospital
- Teapot Dome Scandal
- Harding dies; Coolidge assumes presidency
-
1924
- Indians granted US citizenship
- Immigration Act of 1924
- Adjusted Compensation Act for veterans
- Dawes plan for international finance
- US Troops leave Dominican Republic
- Coolidge wins three way presidential election
-
1925
- Scopes trial
- Florida real estate boom
- Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby
- Dreiser publishes An American Tragedy
-
1926
- Hughes publishes The Weary Blues
- Hemingway publishes The Sun Also Rises
- US Troop occupy Nicaragua
-
1927
- Lindbergh flies solo across Atlantic
- First talking motion picture, The Jazz Singer
- Sacco and Vanzetti executed
-
1928
- Kellogg-Briand Pact
- Hoover defeats Smith for presidency
- Hoover makes goodwill tour of Latin America
-
1929
- Faulkner publishes The Sound and the Fury
- Hemingway publishes A Farewell to Arms
- Agricultural Marketing Act sets up Federal Farm Board
- Stock-Market crash
-
-
1931
Japanese invade Manchuria
-
1932
- Al Capone imprisoned
- Reconstruction Finance Corporation est.
- Norris-La Guardia Anti-Injunction Act
- "Bonus Army" dispersed from Washington DC
- Roosevelt defeats Hoover for presidency
-
1933
- Bank holiday
- Emergency Banking Relief Act
- Beer and Wine Revenue At
- Hundred Days Congress enacts AAA, TVA, HOLC, NRA, and PWA
- Federal Securities Act
- CWA est.
- 20th Amendment (changed calendar of congressional sessions and dates of presidential inaugurations)
- 21st Amendment (prohibition repealed)
- Nazis legally come to power in Germany with passage of Enabling Act
- FDR torpedoes London Economic Conference
- US recognizes USSR
- FDR declares Good Neighbor policy toward Latin America
- Hitler becomes German Chancellor
- Germany quits league of Nations
-
1934
- Indian Reorganization Act
- Gold Reserve Act
- Securities and Exchange Commission authorized
- FHA est.
- Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act
- Tydings-McDuffie Act provides for Philippine independence on July 4, 1946
- Reciprocal Trade Agreement act
- US Marines vacate Haiti
- Mao's Long march into N China begins
-
1935
- WPA est.
- Wagner act
- Resettlement Administration
- Social Security Act
- Public Utility Holding Company Act
- Schecter "sick chicken" case
- CIO Organized
- Nuremberg Laws implemented against German Jews
- Mussolini invades Ethiopia
- US Neutrality Act of 1935
- Japan quits League of Nations
-
1936
- Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act
- Roosevelt defeats Landon for president
- US Neutrality Act of 1936
- Stalin beings Great Purge
- German troops invade Rhineland
-
1936-1939
Spanish Civil War
-
1937
- USHA est.
- Roosevelt announces "Court-packaging" plan
- US Neutrality act of 1937
- Panay incident
- Japan invades China
-
1938
- Second AAA
- Fair Labor Standards act
- Hitler seizes Austria
- Munich Conference
- Kristallnacht in Germany
-
1939
- Reorganization Act
- Hatch Act
- Hitler seizes Czechoslovakia
- Nazi Soviet pact
- WWII being in Euro with Hitler invading Poland
- US Neutrality act of 1939
-
1940
- Fall of France
- Hitler invades Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, and Belgium
- US invokes 1st peace time draft
- Havana Conference
- Battle of Britain
- Bases for destroyers deal with Britain
- FDR defeats Willikie for presidency
-
1941
- Lend-Lease act
- Hitler attacks USSR
- Atlantic Charter
- Japan attacks Pearl harbor
- US declares war on Japan
- Germany declares war on US
- Randolph plans black march on Washington
- Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) est
- Roosevelt delivers "Four Freedoms" Speech
-
1942
- Japanese Americans sent to internment camps
- Japan conquers the Philippines
- Battle of the Coral Sea
- Battle of Midway
- US invades N Africa
- Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) founded
-
1943
- Allies hold Casablanca conference
- Allies invade Italy
- Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act
- Zoot-suit riots in LA
- Race riot in Detroit
- Japanese driven from Guadalcanal
- Tehran conference
-
1944
- Korematsu v. US
- D-Day invasion of France
- Battle of the Marianas
- Roosevelt defeats Dewey for president
- Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill)Bretton Woods economic conference
-
1944-1945
Battle of the Bulge
-
1945
- Roosevelt dies; Truman assumes presidency
- Germany Surrenders
- Battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
- Potsdam conference
- Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- Yalta conference
- Japan surrenders
- Spock publishes The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
- US ends lend-lease to USSR
- UN est.
-
1945-1946
Nuremberg war crimes trial in Germany
-
1946
- Employment Act creates Council of Economic Advisers
- Iran crisis
- Kennan's "Long Telegram" lays out "Containment doctrine"
-
1946-1948
Tokyo war crimes trial
-
1947
- Truman Doctrine
- Marshall Plan
- Taft-Hartley
- National Security Act creates Department of Defense, National Security Council (NSC) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
-
1948
- Israel founded; US recognizes it
- "Voice of America" begins radio broadcasting behind iron curtain
- Alger Hiss case begins
- Truman defeats Dewey for presidency
-
1948-1949
Berlin blockade
-
1949
- NATO est.
- Communists defeat Nationalists in China
- Soviets explode their first atomic bomb
-
1950
- American economy begins post war growth
- McCarthy red hunt begins
- McCarran Internal Security Bill passed by Congress over Truman's veto
-
-
1951
- Truman fires MacArthur
- Rosenbergs convicted of treason
-
1952
- US explodes first hydrogen bomb
- Eisenhower defeats Stevenson for presidency
- Ellison publishes The Invisible Man
-
1953
- CIA engineered coup installs shah of Iran
- Joseph Stalin dies
-
1954
- French defeated at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam
- Army-McCarthy hearings
- Brown v Board of education
- SE Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) formed
- Nasser becomes prime minister of Egypt
- CIA sponsored coup in Guatemala
-
1955
- Montgomery bus boycott by blacks begins; emergence of Martin Luther King Jr
- Geneva summit meeting on Vietnam
- USSR withdraws troops from Austria
- Warsaw pact signed
- AF of L merges with CIO
- Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof first performed
-
1956
- Soviets crush Hungarian revolt
- Suez crisis
- Eisenhower defeats Stevenson for presidency
- Mills publishes The Power Elite
-
1957
- Postwar peak of US birthrate
- Little Rock school desegregation crisis
- Civil Rights Act passed
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) formed
- Eisenhower Doctrine
- USSR launches Sputnik
- European Economic Community (EEC, Common Market) created by Treaty of Rome
-
-
1959
- Castro seizes power in Cuba
- Landrum-Griffan Act
- Alaska and Hawaii attain statehood
-
1960
- Sit-in movement for civil rights begins
- U-2 incident sabotages Paris summit
- OPEC formed
- Kennedy defeats Nixon for presidency
-
1961
- Berlin Wall built
- Alliance for Progress
- Bay of Pigs Invasion
- Kennedy sends "military adviser" to S Vietnam
-
1962
- Pressure from Kennedy results in rollback of steel prices
- Trade Expansion Act
- Laos neutralized
- Cuban missile crisis
-
1963
- France vetoes British membership in EEC
- Anti-Diem coup in S Vietnam
- Civil rights march in Washington DC
- Kennedy assassination; Johnson assumes presidency
-
1964
- 24th amendment (abolishing poll tax in federal elections) ratified
- "Freedom Summer" voter registration in South
- Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
- Johnson defeats Goldwater for presidency
- War on Poverty begins
- Civil Rights Act
-
1965
- Great Society legislation
- Voting Rights Act
- US troops occupy Dominican Republic
-
1965-1968
Race riots in US cities
-
1966
France withdraws from NATO
-
1967
Six day war between Israel and Egypt
-
1968
- N Vietnam army launches Tet offensive in S Vietnam
- Worldwide protests
- Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy assassinated
- Prague spring crushed by USSR
- Nixon defeats Humphrey and Wallace for presidency
- My Lai Massacre
- WITCH protests Miss America pageant in Altantic city, New Jersey
-
1970
- Nixon orders invasion of Cambodia
- Kent State and Jackson State incidents
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Clean Air Actd
-
1971
Pentagon papers published
-
1972
- 26th amendment (lowering voting age to 18)
- Nixon visits China and USSR
- Shanghai Communique begins "normalization" of US-Chinese relations
- ABM and SALT I treaties ratified
- Nixon defeats McGovern for presidency
- Equal Rights Amendment passes Congress (not ratified by states)
- Title IX of Education Amendments passed
-
1973
- US birthrate falls below replacement level
- Treaty of Paris enacts cease fire in Vietnam and US withdraws
- Agnew resigns; Ford appointed vice president
- War powers act
- Yom Kippur War
- OPEC oil embargo
- Endangered species act
- Chilean president Salvado Alende killed in CIA backed coup
- Frontiero v Richardson
- Roe v Wade
-
1973-1974
Watergate hearings and investigation
-
1974
- Nixon resigns; Ford assumes presidency
- OPEC ends embargo, increases oil prices
- International Energy Agency formed
- Milliken v Bradley
-
1975
- Helsinki accords
- South Vietnam falls to communists
-
1976
Carter defeats Ford for presidency
-
1978
- Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel
- United States v Wheeler
-
1979
- Iranian revolution and oil crisis
- SALT II agreements signed (never ratified by Senate)
- USSR Invades Afghanistan
-
1979-1981
Iranian hostage crisis
-
1980
- US boycotts Summer Olympics in Moscow
- Reagan defeats Carter for presidency
-
1981
- Iran releases American hostages
- "reaganomics" spending and tax cuts passed
- Solidarity movement in Poland
- O'Conner appointed to Supreme Court (first woman justice)
-
1981-1991
US aids anti-leftist forces in Central America
-
1982
- Recession hits US economy
- Israel invades Lebanon
-
1983
- Reagan announces SDI plan (Star Wars)
- US marines killed in Beirut, Lebanon
- US Invasion of Grenada
-
1984
- Reagan defeats Mondale for presidency
- USSR boycotts Summer Olympics in LA
-
1985
- Gorbachev comes to power in USSR, announces glasnost and perestroika
- 1st Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting in Geneva
-
1986
- Reagan administration backs Aquino in Philippines
- Iran-Contra affair revealed
- 2nd Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland
-
1987
- Senate rejects Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork
- US naval escorts begin in Persian Gulf
- Stock market plunges 508 points
- 3rd Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting in Washington DC, INF treaty signed
-
1988
- 4th Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting in Moscow
- Bush defeats Dukakis for presidency
-
1989
- Chinese gov. suppresses pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square
- Webster v. Reproductive Health Services
- Eastern European countries oust communist gov.
- Berlin Wall torn down
-
1990
- Iraq invades Kuwait
- E and W Germany unite
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
-
1991
- Persian Gulf War
- Thomas appointed to Supreme court
- Gorbachev Survives coup attempt, resigns as Soviet president
- USSR dissolves, republics form Commonwealth of Independent States
-
1992
- 27th Amendment (Prohibiting Congressional pay raises from taking effect until an election seats a new session of Congress) ratified
- Planned Parenthood v. Casey
- Clinton defeats Bush and Perot for Presidency
-
-
1994
Republicans win majorities in both houses of Congress
-
1996
- Welfare Reform Bill becomes law
- Clinton defeats Dole for presidency
-
1998
- Clinton-Lewinsky scandal
- US and Britain launch military strikes against Iraq
- House of Representatives impeaches Clinton
-
1999
- Senate acquits Clinton on impeachment charges
- Kosovo crisis; NATO warfare with Serbia
- Protest in Seattle against World Trade Organization
-
2000
- "Million Mom March" against guns in Washington DC
- US normalizes trade relations with China
- George W Bush wins presidency in Electoral College; Albert Gore takes popular vote
-
2001
- Terrorists attack NYC and Washington DC
- US invades Afghanistan
- Congress passes USA Patriot Act
- Energy trader Enron collapses amid accounting scandals
-
2002
- Congress passes No Child Left Behind Act
- Bush labels Iraq, Iran and North Korea "Axis of evil"
- Telecommunications giant WorldCom declares bankruptcy
- Congress authorizes use of force against Iraq
- UN Security Council demands that Iraq comply with weapons inspections
- Republicans regain Senate
-
2003
- N Korea withdraws form Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
- US invades Iraq
- Bush signs drug prescription bill for seniors
- Saddam Hussein captured in Iraq
- Supreme Court Narrowly approves affirmation action
-
2004
- Gay marriage controversy erupts
- Iraqi interim government installed
- Bush defeats Kerry for presidency
-
2005
Iraq elects permanent government but quickly descends into sectarian conflict
-
2006
Saddam Hussein executed
-
2007
US troop surge in Iraq
-
2008
Barack Obama elected 44th president of the United States
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