1800-1876

  • Library of Congress

    The Library of Congress is founded in Washington
  • Jefferson Elected

    The US House of Representatives votes for Jefferson as president
  • The Factory Act

    The British parliament passes the first Factory Act, limiting a child's working day in a factory to twelve hours
  • The Political Register

    William Cobbett launches a weekly newspaper, The Political Register
  • Lewis and Clark

    Lewis and Clark make their way through the Rockies and reach the Pacific
  • Lewis and Clark Return

    Lewis and Clark get back to St Louis with a wealth of information about the unopened west of the continent
  • The Clermont

    Robert Fulton launches a steamboat, the Clermont, on New York's Hudson river
  • America Wins at Lake Erie

    American warships win a victory over the British on Lake Erie
  • Star-Spangled Banner is Written

    US lawyer Francis Scott Key writes The Star-Spangled Banner
  • First Macadamized Road

    John McAdam builds the first macadamized road
  • Monroe is Elected

    Republican candidate James Monroe wins the US presidential election
  • Frankenstein is Published

    Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein
  • Monroe Warns Against Interference

    US president James Monroe warns European nations against interfering in America
  • Republicans Split

    The Republican party in the USA splits into National Republicans and Democratic Republicans
  • Adams Wins Election

    John Quincy Adams wins the US presidential election
  • White Males Gain Voting Rights

    Adult white males now have the vote in almost all the states of the USA
  • Jacksonian Democracy

    Andrew Jackson, elected president of the USA, introduces the era known as Jacksonian democracy
  • Hymn America is Sung

    Samuel Francis Smith's patriotic hymn America is sung for the first time on July 4 in Boston
  • Cholera Epidemic

    The USA suffers the first of several cholera epidemics
  • US Railway

    The first long-distance US railway carries its first passengers
  • Van Buren Wins Election

    Martin van Buren wins the US presidential election on the Democratic ticket
  • Telegraph

    US inventor Samuel Morse gives the first public demonstration, in Philadelphia, of his electric telegraph
  • The Great Removal

    Five American Indian tribes are forcibly escorted to a new Indian Territory west of the Mississippi in the process that becomes known as the Great Removal
  • Oregon Trail

    The Great Migration across the north American continent to the Pacific establishes the Oregon Trail
  • YMCA

    The Young Men's Christian Association is founded in London by British drapery assistant George Williams
  • Telegraph

    Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail complete the first telegraph line
  • Frederick Douglass Autobiography

    Escaped slave Frederick Douglass publishes the first of three volumes of his autobiography
  • Gold Rush

    Gold is found on the property of John Sutter and news of it launches the first gold rush
  • Communist Manifesto

    The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels, is published in Paris with the ringing slogan: 'Workers of the world, unite!'
  • Compromise of 1850

    The US Congress passes the Compromise of 1850, designed to defuse the growing crisis over slavery
  • Republican Party

    An anti-slavery movement adopts a resonant name, calling itself the Republican party
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    The controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act passes into law, enabling citizens of these territories to decide whether or not to allow slavery
  • Buchanan Wins Election

    Democrat candidate James Buchanan wins the US presidential election
  • Abraham Lincoln

    Abraham Lincoln comes to national prominence through his debates on slavery with Stephen Douglas
  • Lincoln Runs for President

    Lincoln becomes the Republican presidential candidate
  • Lincoln Wins Election

    Republican contender Abraham Lincoln is elected US president with only 39% of the popular vote and no electoral votes in eleven southern states
  • The Confederates

    Seven southern states, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, agree to form the Confederate States of America
  • First Civil War Battle

    A two-day engagement at Shiloh is the first Civil War battle to bring massive casualties, with more than 23,000 dead, wounded or missing
  • Homestead Act

    The Homestead Act grants 160 acres in the west of the USA to any family farming them for five years
  • Gettysburg Address

    President Lincoln, in honouring the Union dead at Gettysburg, captures in three minutes the essence of American democracy
  • Lincoln is Re-elected

    President Lincoln is re-elected for a second term
  • Black Codes

    The southern states pass new Black Codes, designed to limit the freedom granted to African-Americans by the victorious north
  • Fourteenth Amendment

    The Fourteenth Amendment to the US constitution assures equal rights as citizens to all born or naturalized in the USA
  • Reconstruction Acts

    The US Congress passes Reconstruction Acts, dividing the defeated South into military districts and insisting on elections by universal male suffrage
  • Grant Wins Election

    Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant wins the US presidential election
  • Fifteenth Amendment

    The Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution makes it illegal to deny the right to vote on racial grounds
  • NRA Established

    Civil War veterans in the USA establish the National Rifle Association to promote marksmanship
  • First National Park

    The US Congress establishes Yellowstone as the world's first national park
  • Hayes Wins Election

    Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes defeats Democrat Samuel J. Tilden in a US presidential election