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1766 | Stamp Act repealed |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 |
Worksheet at:
List of Events in British History
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