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Thomas Jefferson elected President
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The Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was a land purchase made by United States president, Thomas Jefferson, in 1803. He bought the Louisiana territory from France, which was being led by Napoleon Bonaparte at the time, for 15,000,000 USD Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. -
Lewis and Clark expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition began in 1804 when President Thomas Jefferson tasked Meriwether Lewis with exploring lands west of the Mississippi River that comprised the Louisiana Purchase. -
James Madison elected President
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War of 1812
A conflict fought between the United States and the United Kingdom, with their respective allies, from June 1812 to February 1815. -
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was the first person to take a photograph.
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James Monroe elected President
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René Laënnec invents the stethoscope.
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John Quincy Adams elected President
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American, W.A. Burt invents a typewriter.
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Andrew Jackson elected President
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Frenchmen, B. Thimonnier invents a sewing machine.
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Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern Native American tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for white settlement of their ancestral lands. -
Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears was a series of forced relocations of Native Americans in the United States from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States, to areas to the west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Indian Territory. -
Samuel Colt invented the first revolver.
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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. Profits, prices, and wages went down while unemployment went up. -
Martin Van Buren elected President
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Samual Morse invents Morse Code
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William Henry Harrison elected President
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John Tyler elected President
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Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny expressed the philosophy that drove 19th-century U.S. territorial expansion. Manifest Destiny held that the United States was destined—by God, its advocates believed—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent. -
James K. Polk elected President
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Mexican-American War
The Mexican–American War was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
A peace treaty signed on February 2, 1848, in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo (now a neighborhood of Mexico City) between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). -
Zachary Taylor elected President
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Millard Fillmore elected President
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Franklin Pierce elected President
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James Buchanan elected President
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South Carolina Secedes
South Carolina secedes from the Union. Followed within two months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. -
Confederate States are formes
The Confederate States of America is formed with Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate, and former U.S. Army officer, as president. -
Abraham Lincoln elected President
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Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the South Carolina militia, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army, that started the American Civil War. -
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The Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. -
Virginia Secedes from the Union
Virginia secedes from the Union, followed within five weeks by Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, thus forming an eleven state Confederacy with a population of 9 million, including nearly 4 million slaves. -
Lincoln issued a proclomation
Three days after the attack on Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling forth the state militias, to the sum of 75,000 troops, in order to suppress the rebellion. -
First Battle of Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas, was the first major battle of the American Civil War and was a Confederate victory. -
Battle of Fort Henry
Victory for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Tennessee, capturing Fort Henry, and ten days later Fort Donelson. Grant earns the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. -
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh was fought on April 6 and 7, 1862, and resulted in a Union victory. With more than 23,000 casualties, Shiloh was the first battle of the Civil War that saw large-scale death and suffering. -
Battle of Antietam
General Lee had hoped to defeat the Union on Union soil and force the North to give up on the war. The Union won the Battle of Antietam, although both sides experienced heavy casualties. With 23,000 casualties, this was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War. -
Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862 was one of the most significant battles of the war. It was a battle with many Union casualties, the largest river crossing of the war, and it also acted as a boost for the Confederate hopes of victory. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
The Draft Act of 1863
The U.S. Congress enacts a draft, affecting male citizens aged 20 to 45, but also exempts those who pay $300 or provide a substitute. "The blood of a poor man is as precious as that of the wealthy," poor Northerners complain. -
Battle of Chancellorsville
Resulted in a Confederate victory that stopped an attempted flanking movement by Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker's Army of the Potomac against the left of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. -
Siege of Vicksburg
The Battle of Vicksburg was significant because it allowed the Union Army to take control of the Mississippi River from the Confederacy. The siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war's turning point. -
Gettysburg Address
A speech that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. -
Civil War ends
Remaining Confederate forces surrender. The Nation is reunited as the Civil War ends. Over 620,000 Americans died in the war, with disease killing twice as many as those lost in battle. 50,000 survivors return home as amputees. -
Thirteenth Amendment ratified
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, is finally ratified. Slavery is abolished. -
Andrew Johnson elected President
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Lee Surrenders
Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate Army to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Grant allows Rebel officers to keep their sidearms and permits soldiers to keep horses and mules. -
Lincolns Assassination
The Stars and Stripes are ceremoniously raised over Fort Sumter. That night, Lincoln and his wife Mary see the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. At 10:13 p.m., during the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth shoots the president in the head. -
Battle of Palmito Ranch
The final battle of the American Civil War. Robert E. Lee surrendered the last major Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. -
Ulysses S. Grant elected President
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Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire.
