US History Timeline

  • Oct 12, 1492

    The Discovery of America by Columbus

    The Discovery of America by Columbus
    Columbus did not discover the Americas but instead arrived and made it known to the Europeans.
  • The Settlement of Jamestown

    A group called the Virginia Company founded traveled and founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the bank of the James river.
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    The French and Indian War

    The clash between the French and English over colonial territory and wealth that made it the bloodiest American war in the 18th century.
  • The Boston Tea Party

    The Boston Tea Party
    A group of Massachusetts colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chaats of tea into the harbor.
  • The Battle of Lexington and Concord

    British troops are sent to confiscate colonial weapons, they run into an untrained and angry militia who defeat 700 British soldiers.
  • The Declaration of Independence

    The Declaration of Independence
    A document written by Thomas Jefferson stating and securing or rights on how all men are created equal.
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    The Battle of Yorktown

    The defeat of the British at Yorktown prompted the British government to negotiate an end to the American Revolution and give the colonist their freedom.
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    The Constitutional Convention

    The Constitutional Convention met in 1787. Delegates met to give Congress more power. Delegates included only white, male landowners. Some delegates wanted a republic thinking it would protect citizens’ rights.
  • The invention of the cotton gin

    The invention of the cotton gin
    Inventor Eli Whitney made the cotton gin machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber.
  • The Alien and Sedition Acts

    A series of laws known as the Alien and Sedition Acts passed by the Federalist Congress in 1798. These laws included new powers to deport foreigners as well as making it harder for new immigrants to vote.
  • The Louisiana Purchase

    The Louisiana Purchase
    530,000,000 acres of territory in North America that the United States purchased from France for $15 million.
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    The War of 1812

    The U.S. declared war on Britain. Americans wanted to stop impressment. They also wanted Britain to stop arming the Indians.
  • The Missouri Compromise

    The Missouri Compromise
    The Missouri Compromise kept a balance between the number of slave states and the number of free states in the Union. It allowed Missouri to enter as a slave state.
  • Andrew Jackson’s Election

    The election was a rematch between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson for democracy
  • The Panic of 1837

    First major financial crisis caused by economic policies created by President Jackson
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    The Trail of Tears

    16,000 Native Americans were marched over 1,200 miles of rugged land. Over 4,000 of the Cherokee Indians died of disease, famine, and warfare.
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    The Mexican-American War

    The US and Mexico went to war for several reasons. They could not agree on the border between them , they went to war and the US defeated Mexico.
  • The Compromise of 1850

    The compromise of 1850 consisted of laws including California as a free state, slave trade would be abolished in the District of Columbia, etc.
  • The Firing on Fort Sumter

    The battle was the first battle of the American Civil War.
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    The Emancipation Proclamation

    Jan. 1 the U.S. President ,Abraham Lincoln, declared that all slaves are free and rebelling against the federal government.
  • Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse

    Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the courthouse of Virginia
  • Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination

    Abraham was shot in the head at Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C.. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, who performed at the theatre.
  • The invention of the telegraph

    An invention developed by Samuel Morse that made it possible to send messages across telegraph lines.
  • Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment

    The U.S. House of Representatives voted 11 articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson. President Johnson was the first to be voted into impeachment in US history
  • 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments

    the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were known as the Civil war Amendments and were to ensure equality for slaves. the 13th amendment banned slavery.
  • The Organization of Standard Oil Trust

    An organization of American oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company established John D. Rockefeller
  • The invention of the electric light, telephone, and airplane

    Thomas Edison invented the first lightbulb in the 1870s.
    Alexander Ghram was the inventor of the telephone developing from the telegraph.
    The Wright Brothers were the ones who invented and developed the airplane in 1903.
  • The Pullman and Homestead Strikes

    he Homestead Strike was one of the most bitterly fought industrial disputes of U.S. labor.
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    The Spanish-American War

    Conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and ended in U.S.purchase of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America.
  • Theodore Roosevelt becomes president

    Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th US president in 1901