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U.S History A Timeline

  • Aug 3, 1492

    The Discovery of America by Columbus

    The Discovery of America by Columbus
    Christopher Columbus discovered America by leading his three ships -the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria- out to find treasures from Asia and the Indies.
  • The Settlement of Jamestown

    The Settlement of Jamestown
    English men set out on a journey to start a settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, soon to be the first permanent English settlement in North America.
  • The French and Indian War

    The French and Indian War
    The French and Indian War was a war between Great Britain and France, along with American Indian allies that lasted 7 years that is why it is known for its other name: "The Seven Years' War."
  • The Boston Tea Party

    The Boston Tea Party
    The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts
  • The Battle of Lexington and Concord

    The Battle of Lexington and Concord
    The first Revolutionary Battle that was the beginning to the American Revolutionary War started with British troops being sent to confiscate colonial weapons and running into an angry militia. The militia ended up defeating the 700 British troops.
  • The Declaration of Independence

    The Declaration of Independence
    The formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the freedom of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain It was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, also known as Independence Day.
  • The Battle of Yorktown

    The Battle of Yorktown
    The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, in 1780, about 5,500 French soldiers landed in Rhode Island to assist their American allies in operations against British-controlled New York. The battle ended when General Cornwallis surrendered himself and his army.
  • The Constitutional Convention

    The Constitutional Convention
    The result of the Convention was the creation of the United States Constitution, placing the Convention among the most significant events in the history of the United States.
  • The invention of the cotton gin

    The invention of the cotton gin
    U.S.-born inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber.
  • The Alien and Sedition Acts

    The Alien and Sedition Acts
    Signed into law by President John Adams in 1798, the Alien and Sedition Acts consisted of four laws passed by the Federalist-controlled Congress.These acts increased the residency requirement for American citizenship from five to fourteen years, authorized the president to imprison or deport aliens considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States" and restricted speech critical of the government.
  • The Louisiana Purchase

    The Louisiana Purchase
    The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France.
  • The War of 1812

    The War of 1812
    The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States and the United Kingdom and their respective allies.
  • The Missouri Compromise

    The Missouri Compromise
    The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted.
  • Andrew Jackson’s Election

    Andrew Jackson’s Election
    The United States presidential election of 1828 was the 11th quadrennial presidential election and featured a re-match between President John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson, who won a plurality of the electoral college vote in the 1824 election.
  • The Panic of 1837

    The Panic of 1837
    The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s
  • The Trail of Tears

    The Trail of Tears
    The Trail of Tears was a series of forced removals of Native American nations from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to an area west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Indian Territory.
  • The invention of the telegraph

    The invention of the telegraph
    Developed in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse (1791-1872) and other inventors, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations.
  • The Mexican-American War

    The Mexican-American War
    The Mexican-American War was marked the first U.S. armed conflict chiefly fought on foreign soil. It pitted a politically divided and militarily unprepared Mexico against the expansionist-minded administration of U.S. President James K. Polk, who believed the United States had a “manifest destiny” to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean.
  • The Compromise of 1850

    The Compromise of 1850
    The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished.
  • The Firing on Fort Sumter

    The Firing on Fort Sumter
    The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the Confederate States Army, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army that started the American Civil War.
  • The Emancipation Proclamation

    The Emancipation Proclamation
    On September 22, soon after the Union victory at Antietam, he issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. While the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave, it was an important turning point in the war, transforming the fight to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom.
  • Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse

    Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
    Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.
  • Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination

    Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
    Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., as the American Civil War was drawing to a close.
  • 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments

    13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
    The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, known collectively as the Civil War Amendments, were designed to ensure equality for recently emancipated slaves. The 13th Amendment banned slavery and all involuntary servitude, except in the case of punishment for a crime.
  • The Organization of Standard Oil Trust

    The Organization of Standard Oil Trust
    Established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refinery in the world of its time. ... The Standard Oil trust streamlined production and logistics, lowered costs, and undercut competitors.
  • Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment

    Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment
    On February 24, 1868 the House of Representatives voted 126 to 47 in favor of a resolution to impeach the President for high crimes and misdemeanors. ... One week later, the House adopted eleven articles of impeachment against the President.
  • The Pullman and Homestead Strikes

    The Pullman and Homestead Strikes
    The Homestead Strike was an industrial lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892.The final result was a major defeat for the union and a setback for their efforts to unionize steelworkers.
  • The Spanish-American War

    The Spanish-American War
    The Spanish-American War was a conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America.
  • Theodore Roosevelt becomes president

    Theodore Roosevelt becomes president
    The presidency of Theodore Roosevelt began on September 14, 1901, when he became the 26th President of the United States upon the assassination and death of President William McKinley, and ended on March 4, 1909.
  • The invention of the electric light, telephone, and airplane

    The invention of the electric light, telephone, and airplane
    Thomas Edison and the “first” light bulb. In 1878, Thomas Edison began serious research into developing a practical incandescent lamp and on October 14, 1878, Edison filed his first patent application for "Improvement In Electric Lights". Alexander Graham Bell is the father of the telephone it was created in 1876.On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wright brothers had invented the first successful airplane.