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Lousiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River's drainage basin west of the river. -
Lewis and Clark
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. -
End of Slave trade
Britain finally abolished the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1807, and the United States implemented its ban a year later in 1808. Despite these legal bans, and subsequent acts to suppress the trade in the United States and elsewhere, the illegal trans-Atlantic slave trade continued into the 1860s. -
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its own indigenous allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It began when the United States declared war on 18 June 1812. -
Mexican-American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War, was an invasion of Mexico by the United States Army from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1845 American annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered its territory. -
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago
This treaty, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war between the United States and Mexico. By its terms, Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory, including the present-day states California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. -
Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, formed by states that had seceded from the Union. -
Abolistion of Slavery
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. -
First telephone
Alexander Graham Bell is credited with being the inventor of the telephone since his patent and demonstrations for an apparatus designed for “transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically… causing electrical undulations” were successful. First Bell Telephone, June 1875.