List of Events in American History

Hugh Fox American History

30,000 B.C. Asians begin migrating to North   America across the Bering Strait
1000 A.D. Norsemen set up temporary settlement   in Newfoundland
1492 Columbus reaches san Salvador   Island in the Caribbean
1493 Syphilis first recorded in Europe
1494 Treaty of Tordesillas divides New   World between Spain and Portugal
1497 John Cabot establishes first   English claim in North America
1513 Ponce de Leon arrives on Florida   mainland
1518 Smallpox epidemic begins   devastating Indian populatio
1521 Cortes conquers Aztecs in Mexico, Magellan   circumnavigates the globe
1524 Verrazano explores North American   coast
1533 Pizarro captures Inca capital in   Peru
1539 de Soto explores southeast U.S.
1540 Coronado explores southwest U.S.
1558 Elizabeth I takes throne in   England
1585 Roanoke Island colony established,   then disappears
1603 James I takes throne in England
1607 Jamestown founded
1608 Champlain founds Quebec
1609 Henry Hudson explores Hudson River
1611 First Virginia tobacco crop   harvested
1619 First Africans arrive in Virginia
1620 Plymouth Colony founded, House of   Burgesses established in Virginia
1622 Powhatan Confederacy attacks   Virginia settlers
1630 Massachusetts Bay Colony founded
1635 Roger Williams establishes Rhode   Island colony
1637 Anne Hutchinson expelled from   Massachusetts Bay
1638 Harvard College founded
1647 Massachusetts law requires a   public school in every town
1649 Charles I executed
1660 Charles II becomes king
1662 Halfway Covenant established in   New England
1673 Marquette and Jolliet explore   Great Lakes and Mississippi River valley
1676 Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia
1681 Pennsylvania established
1682 La Salle reaches mouth of   Mississippi River
1688 Glorious Revolution; William and   Mary succeed James II
1692 Witchcraft trials begin in Salem
1696 Board of Trade established
1714 George I takes throne, beginning   Hanover dynasty
1734 Great Awakening begins
1755 Franklin establishes College of   Philadelphia
1765 Hudson River land riots
1767 Regulator movement in South   Carolina
1754 Albany Plan of Union
1759 Quebec falls to British
1760 George III becomes king
1763 Peace of Paris
1764 Sugar Act
1765 Stamp Act
1766 Stamp Act repealed
1767 Townshend Duties
1770 Boston Massacre
1772 Gaspee incident in Rhode Island
1773 Tea Act
1774 Intolerable Acts
1775 Lexington & Concord, Battle of   Bunker Hill
1776 Thomas Paine’s “Common   Sense”, Declaration of Independence
1777 Valley Forge, British surrender at   Saratoga
1778 French-American Alliance
1781 Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown
1783 Treaty of Paris recognizes   American independence
1781 Articles of Confederation adopted
1784 Spain closes Mississippi River to   American navigation
1785 Land Ordinance
1786 Annapolis Convention, Shays’s   Rebellion
1787 Northwest Ordinance, Constitutional   Convention meets
1788 “The Federalist”   published, Constitution ratified
1789 Washington becomes first president,   Bill of Rights adopted by Congress
1790 Report on Public Credit
1791 1st Bank of U.S. chartered, Bill   of Rights ratified by states
1792 Washington re-elected president
1793 Washington issues Proclamation of   Neutrality, Cotton gin invented
1794 Whiskey Rebellion
1795 Jay’s Treaty, Pinckney Treaty, Treaty   of Greenville
1796 Adams defeats Jefferson in first   contested presidential election
1798 XYZ Affair, Alien and Sedition   Acts, Virginia and Kentucky resolutions
1800 Jefferson defeats Adams (and Burr)   for President
1801 John Marshall becomes Chief   Justice, War with Tripolitan pirates (through
1803 Marbury v. Madison establishes   judicial review, Louisiana Purchase
1804 Lewis & Clark expedition   (through 1806), Zebulon Pike explores southwest
1806 Burr conspiracy discovered
1807 Chesapeake affair, Embargo Act
1808 Madison elected president, Economy   enters depression
1809 Embargo repealed, Non-intercourse   Act passed
1810 U.S. annexes west Florida
1811 Battle of Tippecanoe
1812 Congress declares war on Britain
1813 British build naval blockade, Americans   burn York (Toronto)
1814 British burn Washington, D.C.,   Treaty of Ghent, Hartford Convention
1815 Jackson wins Battle of New Orleans
1817 Rush-Bagot Treaty
1818 Jackson invades Florida
1819 Panic of 1819, Adams-Onis Treaty
1790 Samuel Slater opens his cotton   mill in Providence, R.I.
1793 Eli Whitney manufactures cotton   gins
1807 Robert Fulton builds Clermont
1810 Fletcher v. Peck expands contract   clause
1814 Waltham (Lowell) system is born
1817 New York Stock Exchange founded, Erie   Canal begins
1819 McCulloch v. Maryland enhances   power of federal government
1820 Missouri Compromise
1823 Monroe Doctrine
1824 John Quincy Adams wins disputed   election, Gibbons v. Ogden
1825 Erie Canal completed
1830 Baltimore & Ohio becomes first   American railroad company
1831 McCormick invents mechanical   reaper
1834 Women workers at Lowell mills   stage first strike
1837 Financial panic
1844 Baltimore-Washington telegraph   line
1849 California gold rush
1817 American Colonization Society   founded
1821 New York constructs first   penitentiary
1828 Jackson elected president, Tariff   of Abominations
1829 Jackson inaugurated as   “People’s President”
1830 Webster-Hayne debate, Jackson   vetoes Maysville Road bill
1831 Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
1832 Jackson vetoes bill to recharter   U.S. Bank
1833 Jackson removes federal deposits   from Bank of U.S.
1836 Jackson issues specie circular
1837 Horace Mann becomes secretary of Massachusetts   Board of Education
1841 Brook Farm commune founded in   Massachusetts
1844 Joseph Smith killed by mob
1845 Frederick Douglass publishes   autobiography
1847 Mormons found Salt Lake City
1848 Women’s rights convention in   Seneca Falls, New York
1822 Mexico wins independence from   Spain
1836 Texas declares independence from   Mexico
1842 Migration to Oregon begins
1844 Polk elected president, Anti-Catholic   rioting in Philadelphia
1845 Texas annexed to U.S. as slave   state
1846 Oregon Treaty, U.S. declares war   on Mexico
1847 Refugees from Irish potato famine   arrive in large numbers to U.S.
1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo   settles Mexican-American War
1849 Cholera epidemic erupts in Eastern   cities
1850 Compromise of 1850
1852 “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”   published by Harriet Beecher Stowe
1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, Republican   Party formed
1856 Bleeding Kansas, Pottawatomie massacre
1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford, Lecomptom   Constitution
1858 Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Freeport   Doctrine
1859 John Brown’s raid at Harper’s   Ferry
1860 Lincoln elected president as   Democrats split, Crittenden Compromise fails
1861 Confederacy formed, Ft. Sumter   attacked, First Battle of Bull Run
1864 Grant assumes command of all Union   armies, Battle of the Wilderness
1865 Hampton Roads Conference, Lincoln   assassinated
1864 Wade-Davis Bill passed
1865 Freedmen’s Bureau established, Johnson   permits passage of Black Codes
1866 Congress passes Civil Rights Act,   14th Amendment proposed
1867 Tenure of Office Act, Alaska   purchased, Southern states establish
1868 Johnson impeached by House,   acquitted by SenateGrant elected president
1869 15th Amendment proposed
1873 Comstock lode discovered
1874 Gold rush begins in Black Hills of   South Dakota
1875 Several Grant assistants indicted   for corruption in Whiskey ring scandal
1876 U.S. v. Cruikshank, Custer   defeated at Little Big Horn
1877 Compromise of 1877, Hayes awarded   presidency
1881 Pres. Garfield assassinated, Helen   Hunt Jackson, “A Century of Dishonor”
1882 Standard Oil Trust formed, Chinese   Exclusion Act
1883 Pendleton Civil Service Act
1892 Sierra Club founded
1895 U.S. v. E.C. Knight
1901 McKinley assassinated
1902 Northern Securities Company   dissolved, Platt Amendment passed
1903 Elkins Act passed
1904 Lincoln Steffens writes The Shame   of the Cities, Roosevelt Corollary
1905 Treaty of Portsmouth settles   Russo-Japanese War
1906 Upton Sinclair writes The Jungle, Pure   Food and Drug Act passed
1907 Great White Fleet embarks on world   tour
1908 Muller v. Oregon Taft elected   president
1909 Payne-Aldrich Tariff
1910 Mann Act passed
1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, Mexican   Revolution erupts
1912 Progressive Party nominates Teddy   Roosevelt for presidency
1914 Clayton Antitrust Act passed, Federal   Trade Commission created
1915 Lusitania torpedoed, Secretary of   State Bryan resigns
1916 Sussex Pledge, Gen. Pershing   pursues Pancho Villa in Mexico
1917 Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare, Zimmermann note intercepted
1918 Wilson’s 14 Points, Sedition Act, Armistice   declared in World War I
1919 Treaty of Versailles, Senate   rejects U.S. entry into League of Nations
1920 19th Amendment ratified (giving   women the franchise), Palmer raids, Red Scare
1920 First commercial radio broadcast, Warren   Harding elected president
1921 Congress enacts immigration quotas,   Washington Naval Conference
1922 Sinclair Lewis writes Babbitt
1923 Harding dies, succeeded by   Coolidge, Teapot Dome scandal unfolds
1925 Scopes Tennessee Evolution trial
1927 Lindbergh’s solo flight across   Atlantic, Sacco and Vanzetti executed
1928 Hoover elected president
1929 Stock Market Crash
1930 Hawley-Smoot Tariff
1931 Japan invades Manchuria
1932 Franklin Roosevelt defeats Hoover   for president
1933 100 Days legislation, Prohibition   repealed
1934 Securities and Exchange Commission   established
1935 Schecter Poultry v. U.S. invalidates   National Recovery Administration
1936 United Auto Workers begin sit-down   strikes
1937 Roosevelt announces court-packing   plan, Roosevelt’s quarantine speech
1938 Appeasement at Munich by   Chamberlin
1939 Fall of Czechoslovakia, Austria   annexed by Germany, Germany invades Poland
1931 Japan invades Manchuria
1933 Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of   Germany
1935 Neutrality Act passed, Nye   Committee hearings, Italy invades Ethiopia
1936 Spanish Civil War begins, Germany   reoccupies Rhineland
1937 Japan launches invasion of China, Japan   attacks U.S. gunboat Panay
1939 Munich Conference (appeasement),   Nazi-Soviet non-agression pact
1941 Lend-Lease aid provided for   Britain, Germany invades Soviet Union
1942 Japan captures Philippines as   Bataan and Corregidor fall
1943 Americans take Guadalcanal, Soviets   defeat Germans at Stalingrad
1944 Allies invade France at Normandy   (D-Day), Roosevelt elected for fourth term
1945 Yalta Conference, Roosevelt dies,   succeeded by Truman
1945 Atomic age begins, United Nations   founded
1946 Crises in Iran and Greece, Atomic   Energy Commission established
1947 Communists take over in Hungary, Truman   Doctrine announced
1948 Communists take over in   Czechoslovakia, Draft re-instated
1949 NATO established, Soviet Union   explodes atomic bomb
1950 Korean War begins, U.S. troops   invade North Korea
1951 MacArthur relieved of command by   Truman, Peace negotiations begin in Korea
1952 U.S. ends Japanese occupation, Eisenhower   elected president
1953 Korean War ends with truce, Stalin   dies
1954 Army-McCarthy hearings
1956 Suez crisis
1957 Soviet Union launches Sputnik,   Germany joins NATO
1959 Castro takes over in Cuba, Khrushchev   visits U.S.
1960 Kennedy-Nixon Debates, John F.   Kennedy elected president
1961 Freedom rides, Bay of Pigs invasion   fails
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
1963 Kennedy assassinated in Dallas
1964 President Johnson announces war on   poverty
1965 Medicare funding begins, Race   riots in Watts
1968 Race riots in Newark and Detroit, Viet   Cong launch Tet Offensive
1969 Neil Armstrong walks on the moon, Woodstock   Music Festival
1970 U.S. troops invade Cambodia, Killings   at Kent State and Jackson State
1971 Pentagon Papers published
1972 Nixon goes to China , Detente with   Soviet Union
1973 Roe v. Wade decision permits   abortions , Israeli-Arab fight Yom Kippur War
1974 Impeachment proceedings begin   against Pres. Nixon
1975 South Vietnam falls
1978 Supreme Court issues Bakke   decision
1979 U.S. and China establish   diplomatic relations, Iran deposes shah
1980 U.S. boycotts Moscow Olympics , Reagan   elected president
1981 Hostages released in Iran , Reagan   breaks air traffic controller strike
1982 Equal Rights Amendment fails to be   ratified by states
1983 Reagan proposed Strategic Defense   Initiative (“Star Wars”)
1985 U.S. bombs Libya , U.S. begins   secret Iran-arms negotiations
1986 Iran-Contra scandal breaks
1989 China crushes revolt in Tiananmen   Square , Berlin Wall falls
1990 Iraq invades Kuwait
1991 Operation Desert Storm launched
1993 Clinton defeats Bush for   presidency
1998 Clinton announces first balanced   budget in 20 years

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List of Events in British History

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