U.S. History

U.S. History

1500’s

1600’s

  • (1616) The Native American population was devastated by a smallpox epidemic
  • (1619) The first representative assembly met in Virginia; the first slaves were brought to Jamestown from Africa (My page on Jamestown)
  • (1620) Pilgrims from England arrived and established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts; the Mayflower Compact was signed; the first public library was established in Virginia
  • (1652) Rhode Island enacted the first law declaring slavery illegal
  • (1664) The English seized New Amsterdam from the Dutch and renamed it New York

1700’s

  • (1712) Carolina colony was divided into North and South Carolina
  • (1754) The French and Indian War began
  • (1760) A huge fire destroyed much of Boston
  • (1763) The Seven Years war ended. Britain gained control of the territory east of the Mississippi River from France
  • (1770) The Boston Massacre occurred
  • (1773) In protest against the British tea tax, a group of colonists, disguised as Indians, boarded three ships in the Boston Harbor and dumped more than 300 crates of tea overboard
  • (1774) The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia with 56 delegates representing every colony except Georgia
  • (1775) The American Revolution War began
  • (1776) The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress
  • (1777) The first official flag of the United States was approved by the Continental Congress; the Articles of Confederation were adopted
  • (1783) Great Britain acknowledged American independence with the Treaty of Paris, ending the war
  • (1785) The Continental Congress relocated to New York City, the temporary capital of the United States
  • (1787) The Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia to draft the Constitution
  • (1788) The Constitution of the United States was ratified; New York City was chosen by the Congress to be the temporary capital
  • (1789) George Washington was unanimously elected president of the United States; the U.S. Army was established by Congress; a day of Thanksgiving was established by a congressional resolution
  • (1790) The first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, were ratified
  • (1793) The cotton gin was invented
  • (1797) John Adams was inaugurated as the second president of the United States

1800’s

  • (1800) Washington, D.C. became the official United States capital
  • (1803) France sold its Louisiana territories to the United States
  • (1804) Lewis and Clark left St. Louis on an expedition to find a route to the Pacific Ocean
  • (1812) The United States declared war on Britain over interference with maritime shipping and expansion to the west (The War of 1812)
  • (1814) The British captured Washington, D. C. and set fire to the White House and Capital; Frances Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner; the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent
  • (1819) The U.S. acquired Florida from Spain
  • (1820) The Missouri Compromise. Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state
  • (1825) The Erie Canal opened
  • (1836) Texas declared its independence from Mexico; the Battle of the Alamo took place with all Texan defenders killed
  • (1845) U.S. annexed Texas
  • (1846) U. S. acquired Oregon Territory; U. S. declared war on Mexico in order to gain California and other territories in the southwest
  • (1848) The Mexican War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The U. S. purchased California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, parts of Colorado and Wyoming; gold was discovered in California
  • (1854) The abolitionists (opponents of slavery)established the Republican Party
  • (1860) Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate, was elected president; South Carolina seceded from the Union
  • (1861) Eleven pro-slavery southern states seceded from the Union; Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederacy; the Civil War began
  • (1863) The Emancipation Proclamation was issued, which freed the slaves in the Confederate states; President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address
  • (1865) The Civil War ended with General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant; President Lincoln was assassinated; the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, prohibiting slavery
  • (1867) The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia
  • (1871) The Chicago fire killed 300 people and left 90,000 homeless
  • (1876) Lt. Col. George Custer’s regiment was eliminated by Sioux Indians at the Little Big Horn River
  • (1886) The Statue of Liberty was dedicated
  • (1898) The U. S. declared War on Spain; the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the war; Spain gave Puerto Rico and Guam to the U. S.; the U. S. purchased the Philippines; U. S. annexed Hawaii

1900’s

  • (1900) Galveston, Texas was hit by a hurricane (the Great Storm) killing over 6,000 people
  • (1903) U. S. acquired the Panama Canal Zone; the Wright brothers made their first flight
  • (1906) Earthquake in San Francisco left 500 missing or dead and destroyed four square miles of the city
  • (1914) World War I began; the Panama Canal opened
  • (1917) U. S. declared war on Germany
  • (1918) World War I ended
  • (1920) The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote; the sale and manufacture of alcoholic liquors was outlawed
  • (1927) Charles Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight
  • (1929) The stock market crash began the Great Depression
  • (1931) The Star-Spangled Banner was adopted as the national anthem
  • (1932) Amelia Earhart was the first woman to complete a solo non-stop transatlantic flight
  • (1933) New Deal recovery programs were enacted; Prohibition was repealed
  • (1935) Social Security Act was passed; the Bureau of Investigation became the Federal Bureau of Investigation led by J. Edgar Hoover
  • (1939) World War II began. The U. S. declared neutrality
  • (1941) U.S. declared war on Japan after attacks at Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines; Germany and Italy declared war on the U. S. and the U. S. reciprocated
  • (1945) U. S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered; the United Nations was established
  • (1947) The Central Intelligence Agency was established; the U.S. established a policy of aid for countries threatened by Communism, known as the Truman Doctrine; the Cold War with the Soviet Union began
  • (1949) North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established
  • (1950) The Korean War began. U. S. armed forces played a leading role against North Korean and Chinese troops
  • (1951) President Truman spoke in the first live television broadcast, coast-to-coast
  • (1952) First hydrogen bomb detonated by the U. S.
  • (1953) The Armistice Agreement was signed, ending the Korean War
  • (1961) The Bay of Pigs invasion occurred, an unsuccessful attempt to invade Cuba by Cuban exiles
  • (1962) The U.S. forced the Soviet Union to withdraw its nuclear weapons from Cuba (the Cuban Missile Crisis); Lt. Col. John Glenn was the first U. S. astronaut to orbit the earth
  • (1963) President John F. Kennedy assassinated
  • (1964) North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked a U.S. destroyer in The Gulf of Tonkin; Civil Rights Act becomes a law
  • (1965) U. S. planes began bombing raids of North Vietnam; U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam
  • (1968) American soldiers killed 300 Vietnamese villagers in the My Lai massacre; civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, was assassinated; Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated
  • (1969) U.S. astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., were the first people to walk on the moon
  • (1970) U. S. troops invaded Cambodia
  • (1972) Five employees of President Richard Nixon were caught breaking into the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D. C. (the Watergate scandal)
  • (1973) A cease fire agreement was executed by North and South Vietnam, the Viet Cong and the U. S.; the U. S. troops left Vietnam; the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy in the Roe v. Wade case; hearings began in the investigation of the Watergate scandal; Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned over charges of income tax evasion and corruption
  • (1974) President Nixon resigned
  • (1979) U. S. established diplomatic ties with mainland China; a nuclear reactor malfunction at Three Mile Island caused a near meltdown; Iranian students invaded the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held the employees as hostages
  • (1986) The space shuttle, Challenger, exploded shortly after take off from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members; U. S. warplanes bombed cities in Libya; the Irangate scandal was uncovered – proceeds from secret sales of U. S. arms to Iran were used illegally to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua
  • (1989) The oil tanker, Exxon Valdez, ran aground in Prince William Sound, and spilled more than 10 million gallons of oil, the largest in U. S. history
  • (1991) U.S. led an international coalition in military operations (Desert Storm) to drive Iraqis out of Kuwait
  • (1993) A bomb exploded in the basement of the World Trade Center, killing 6 people, injuring 1,000 and causing more than $500 million in damages; federal agents stormed the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas killing 80 cult members; the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)was enacted, with the intention of creating a free-trade bloc between the U. S., Canada and Mexico
  • (1995) A bomb in the federal office building in Oklahoma City exploded, killing 168 people
  • (1998) U.S. and Britain launched air strikes against weapon sites in Iraq
  • (1999) 14 students and 1 teacher were killed and 23 others wounded in a shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado; U. S. and China signed trade agreement
  • (1986) The space shuttle, Challenger, exploded shortly after take off from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members; U. S. warplanes bombed cities in Libya; the Irangate scandal was uncovered – proceeds from secret sales of U. S. arms to Iran were used illegally to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua
  • (1989) The oil tanker, Exxon Valdez, ran aground in Prince William Sound, and spilled more than 10 million gallons of oil, the largest in U. S. history
  • (1991) U.S. led an international coalition in military operations (Desert Storm) to drive Iraqis out of Kuwait
  • (1993) A bomb exploded in the basement of the World Trade Center, killing 6 people, injuring 1,000 and causing more than $500 million in damages; federal agents stormed the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas killing 80 cult members; the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)was enacted, with the intention of creating a free-trade bloc between the U. S., Canada and Mexico
  • (1995) A bomb in the federal office building in Oklahoma City exploded, killing 168 people
  • (1998) U.S. and Britain launched air strikes against weapon sites in Iraq
  • (1999) 14 students and 1 teacher were killed and 23 others wounded in a shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado; U. S. and China signed trade agreement

2000’s

  • (2001) Four passenger aircraft were hijacked, two crashed into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and the fourth in a field in Pennsylvania. 3,025 people were killed. The U. S. led massive air strikes at targets in Afghanistan to help defeat the Taliban and to find Osama Bin Laden, who was suspected of being responsible for the attacks on the U. S.; energy giant, Enron, declared bankruptcy after false accounting was discovered
  • (2002) Department of Homeland Security created
  • (2003) The space shuttle, Columbia, exploded upon reentry into the earth’s atmosphere killing the seven crew members; the war against Iraq began
  • (2004) Four hurricanes devastated Florida and southern areas of the U. S.
  • (2005) Hurricane Katrina hit the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi, 80% of New Orleans was flooded, hundreds of people were killed
  • (2006) Millions of immigrants and supporters staged protests against the U. S. government’s plans to criminalize illegal immigrants
  • (2007) Wildfires in California caused over 500,000 to leave homes; bridge across Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed, 7 killed, 60 injured; gunman at Virginia Tech campus killed 33
  • (2008) Financial crises forced Lehman Brothers to file bankruptcy; investors lost over $50 billion in Ponzi scheme by Bernard Madoff; Barack Obama elected President of the United States
  • (2009) US Airways plane crashed into New York’s Hudson River, all on board survived; General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection; President Barack Obama awarded Nobel Peace Prize; US Army major killed 13, injured 30 at Fort Hood Military Base in Texas; incident on international Northwest Airlines flight was failed bomb attack
  • (2010) Catastrophic explosion on oil rig in Gulf of Mexico killed 11, injured 17, caused major ecological and financial damages; mine explosion in West Virginia killed at least 25; Health care bill passed
  • (2011) Occupy Wall Street movement attracted thousands of demonstrators in New York City
  • (2011) Last US troops left Iraq after invasion nine years ago
  • (2011) US forces killed terrorist Osama bin Laden
  • (2012) US soldier killed 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar