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Oct 12, 1492
Christopher Columbus
Financed by Spain, makes the first of four voyages to the New World. He lands in the Bahamas. -
1565
The first permanent European colony
Saint Augustine, Florida, settled by the Spanish, becomes the first permanent European colony in North America. -
French and Indian War
Final conflict in the ongoing struggle between the British and French for control of eastern North America. The British win a decisive victory over the French on the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec. -
American Revolution
War of independence fought between Great Britain and the 13 British colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America. Battles of Lexington and Concord, Mass., between the British Army and colonial minutemen, mark the beginning of the war. -
Declaration of Independence
Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. The author was Thomas Jefferson. -
Official flag
Continental Congress approves the first official flag of the United States. -
First constitution
Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation, the first U.S. constitution. -
The first president
George Washington is unanimously elected president of the United States in a vote by state electors. -
The second president
John Adams is inaugurated as the second president in Philadelphia. -
U.S capital
The U.S. capital is moved from Philadelphia to Washington, DC. -
The third president
Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated as the third president in Washington, DC. -
The fourth president
James Madison is inaugurated as the fourth president. -
War of 1812
U.S. declares war on Britain over British interference with American maritime shipping and westward expansion. -
Treaty of Ghent
Treaty of Ghent is signed, officially ending the war. -
The fifth president
James Monroe is inaugurated as the fifth president. -
The sixth president
John Quincy Adams is inaugurated as the sixth president. -
The seventh president
Andrew Jackson is inaugurated as seventh president. -
Indial Removal Act
President Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, which authorizes the forced removal of Native Americans living in the eastern part of the country to lands west of the Mississippi River. -
The eighth president
Martin Van Buren is inaugurated as the eighth president. -
The ninth president
William Henry Harrison is inaugurated as the ninth president.
He dies one month later and is succeeded in office by his vice president, John Tyler. -
The eleventh president
James Polk is inaugurated as the 11th president -
Mexican War
U.S. declares war on Mexico in effort to gain California and other territory in Southwest. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
War concludes with signing of Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. -
Women's rights
Women's rights convention is held at Seneca Falls, N.Y. -
The twelfth president
Zachary Taylor is inaugurated as the 12th president. -
The thirteenth president
Millard Fillmore is inaugurated as the 13th president. -
The fourteenth president
Franklin Pierce is inaugurated as the 14th president. -
The fifteenth president
James Buchanan is inaugurated as the 15th president. -
Civil War
Conflict between the North (the Union) and the South (the Confederacy) over the expansion of slavery into western states. -
The sixteenth president
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th president.
Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Washington, DC, and is succeeded by his vice president, Andrew Johnson. -
The seventeenth president
Andrew Johson is inaugurated as the 17th president -
The eighteenth president
Ulysses Simpson Grant is inaugurated as the 18th president. -
The nineteenth president
Rutherford Birchard Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th president. -
The twentieth president
James Abram Garfield is inaugurated as the 20th president. -
The twenty-first president
Chester Alan Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st president. -
The twenty-second president
Stephen Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the 22nd president. -
The twenty-third president
Benjamin Harrison is inaugurated as the 23rd president. -
NAWSA
National American Woman Suffrage Association is founded, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as president. -
The twenty-fourth president
Stephen Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the 24th president. -
The twenty-fifth president
William McKinley is inaugurated as the 25th president. -
Spanish-American War
USS Maine is blown up in Havana harbor. -
Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish-American War. -
The twenty-sixth
Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 26th president. -
The twenty-seventh president
William Howard Taft is inaugurated as the 27th president. -
The twenty-eighth president
Thomas Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as the 28th president. -
World War I
U.S. enters World War I, declaring war on Germany (April 6, 1917) and Austria-Hungary (Dec. 7, 1917) three years after conflict began in 1914. -
End of the war
Armistice ending World War I is signed. -
The twenty-ninth president
Warren Gamaliel Harding is inaugurated as the 29th president. -
The thirtieth president
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. is inaugurated as the 30th president. -
The thirty-first president
Herbert Clark Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st president. -
The thirty-second president
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd president. -
World War II
U.S. declares its neutrality in European conflict. -
The thirty-third president
Harry S. Truman is inaugurated as the 33rd president. -
Period: to
Vietnam War
Prolonged conflict between Communist forces of North Vietnam, backed by China and the USSR, and non-Communist forces of South Vietnam, backed by the United States. President Truman authorizes $15 million in economic and military aid to the French, who are fighting to retain control of French Indochina, including Vietnam. As part of the aid package, Truman also sends 35 military advisers. -
Korean War
Cold war conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces on Korean Peninsula. -
The thirty-fourth president
Dwight David Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th president. -
End of the war
Armistice agreement is signed. -
The thirty-fifth president
John (Jack) Fitzgerald Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th president. -
Civil rights
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech before a crowd of 200,000 during the civil rights march on Washington, DC. -
The thirty-sixth president
Lyndon Baines Johnson is inaugurated as the 36th president. -
Voting Rights Act
President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices. -
The thirty-seventh president
Richard Milhous Nixon is inaugurated as the 36th president. -
First men to land on the Moon.
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to land on the Moon. -
The thirty-eighth president
Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. is inaugurated as the 38th president. -
The thirty-ninth president
James Earl 'Jimmy' Carter, Jr. is inaugurated as the 39th president. -
The fortieth president
Ronald Wilson Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th president. -
The forty-first president
George Herbert Walker Bush is inaugurated as the 41st president. -
The forty-second president
William Jefferson Clinton is inaugurated as the 42nd president. -
The forty-third president
George Walker Bush is inaugurated as the 43rd president. -
Twin Towers attack
Two hijacked jetliners ram twin towers of World Trade Center in worst terrorist attack against U.S.; a third hijacked plane flies into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashes in rural Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people die in the attacks. -
Forty-fourth president
Barack Hussein Obama Jr. is inaugurated as the 44th president.
