US History A Timeline

By whitneykylee
  • 1492

    The Discovery of America

    In 1492 Christopher Columbus led a Spanish based expedition which led them to an unknown continent, the Americas.

  • The Settlement of Jamestown

    Jamestown was America's forst permanent English colony founded in 1607.

  • The French and Indian War

    Also known as the Seven Years' War, began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763

  • The Boston Tea Party

    A group of Massachusetts colonists dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor in protest of the British Parliaments's Tea Act of 1773.

  • The Battle of Lexington and Concord

    The first military engagements that started the Revolutionary Battle at Lexington and Concord. The night of April 18, 1775 hundreds of troops marched from Boston to Concord.

  • The Declaration of Independence

    The statement that announced the 13 American colonies as no longer under British rule but as independent states.

  • The Battle of Yorktown

    General George Washington commanded 17,000 French and Continental troops against 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia.

  • The Constitutional Convention

    With George Washington as president, the Constitutional Convention assembled on the day in 1787. This was to overthrow the new American Government defined by the Article of Confederation.

  • The Invention of the Cotton Gin

    Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin in 1794. It's a machine that was made to speed up the process of removing seeds from cotton.

  • The Alien and Sedition Acts

    In preparation for an expected war with France, the Alien and Sedition Acts were passes in 1798 by Congress.

  • The Louisiana Purchase

    The US purchased 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France, doubling the size of the young republic with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

  • The War of 1812

    Because the British tried to restrict the Us trade, the Royal Navy's impressment, and America's desire to expand its territory, the US took them on in war of 1812.

  • The Missouri Compromise

    Missouri's request for admission as a slave state threatened the balance between slave states and free states. Congress made a compromise to grant Maine and Missouri's requests.

  • Andrew Jackson's Election

    Andrew Jackson was elected as the 7th president of the United States in 1828.

  • The Panic of 1837

    A financial crisis that lasted until the mid 1840's. Unemployment went up and profits, prices, and wages went down.

  • The Trail of Tears

    The Trail of Tears is the journey that Native Americans had to go on when hey were forced to leave their homelands because white settlers wanted too grow cotton on their land.

  • The Mexican and American War

    The first US armed conflict that fought on foreign soil. After the war, Mexico lost about one third of it's territory, including present say states.

  • the Compromise of 1850

    Because of divisions over slavery in territory obtained in the Mexican American war, this compromise was made to resolve the dispute.

  • The Firing on Fort Sumter

    The bombing of Fort Sumter near South Carolina by the confederate states army.

  • The Emancipation Proclamation

    The proclamation issued by President Lincoln that changed the federal legal status of more than 3 million enslaved people.

  • The Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse

    Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered his Army, resulting in the Battle Appomattox Courthouse that effectively brought the 4 year Civil War to an end.

  • 13th Amendment

    The 13th Amendment officially abolished Slavery in America.

  • Abraham Lincoln's Assassination

    On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated president Abraham Lincoln while attending a play.

  • Andrew Johnson's Impeachment

    Andrew Johnson was impeached because of his high crimes and misdemeanors.

  • 14th and 15th Amendment

    These amendments, known as the Civil War Amendments ensured the equality for recently emancipated slaves.

  • The Organization of Standard Oil Trust

    John D Rockefeller established the largest oil refinery in the world of it's time.

  • The Invention of the Telegraph

    Samuel Morse and other inventors devekoped long distance communication.

  • Invention of the Telephone

    Alexander Graham Bell began attempting to invent a machine that would transmit sound by electricity and granted his 1st patent for his telephone in March 1878.

  • Invention of the Electric Light

    Thomas Edison began research into developing a practical light and filed for his 1st patent for electric lights.

  • The Homestead Strike

    A strike pitted against the Carneige Steel Company and it's workers.

  • The Pullman Strike

    A railroad strike because of the cut wages and poor living conditions, ti was a successful strike and a turning point for US labor laws.

  • The Spanish American War

    A conflict between the US and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas that resulted in US purchase of territories.

  • Theodore Roosevelt Becomes President

    Theodore Roosevelt because the 26th president of the United States in 1901.

  • The Invention of the Airplane

    In 1903 the Wright Brothers achieved the 1st power sustained and controlled airplane flight. This was surpassed 2 years by themselves when they built and flew their 1st fully practical airplane.