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Founding of Jamestown
On May 14, 1607, The Virginia Company founded Jamestown which became the first permanent settlement in North America. Jamestown was named after King James I. Jamestown was chosen to be the first permanent settlement because it was surrounded by water on three sides and it was far inland. -
The French and Indian War
The French and Indian war, also known as the seven years war, was a conflict between Great Britain and France. When France’s expansion into the Ohio River valley brought repeated conflict with the claims of the British colonies, a series of battles led to the official British declaration of war in 1756. The main conflict was over land. The French and Indian War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in February 1763. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord started the American Revolution. On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord in order to seize an arms cache. At the battle of Concord, shots were fired at British troops and this sparked the American Revolution. -
The signing of the Declaration of Independence
August 2, 1776, is one of the most important but least celebrated days in American history when 56 members of the Second Continental Congress started signing the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. Officially, the Congress declared its freedom from Great Britain on July 2, 1776. This was signed by many people, but the main person who gets credit for signing the Declaration of Independence is Thomas Jefferson. -
The signing of the Articles of Confederation
On March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation are finally ratified. The Articles were signed by Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification on November 15, 1777, after 16 months of debate. The states were debating over land claims and Virginia and Maryland delayed the ratification for not agreeing. Maryland eventually agreed and the Article of Confederation were signed. -
Constitutional Convention
Four years after the United States won its independence from England, 55 state delegates, including George Washington, James Madison and Benjamin Franklin, met in Philadelphia to compose a new U.S. constitution. They met in Independence Hall, which was also where the Declaration of Independence was drafted and where the Article of Confederation was signed. -
Election of 1800
In the Election of 1800, Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson defeated Federalist John Adams. This was the first peaceful transition in power from one political party to another. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 brought into the United States about 828,000 square miles of territory from France. The Louisiana Territory stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Canadian border in the north. The reason for the Louisiana Purchase was that the United States wanted to expand more westward. -
The War of 1812
In the War of 1812, the United States took on the greatest naval power in the world, Great Britain, in a conflict that would have an immense impact on the young country’s future. The U.S suffered big losses in this war, including the burning of the nation's capital. The ratification of the Treaty of Ghent on February 17, 1815, ended the war. The United States celebrated the War of 1812 as a “second war of independence,” beginning an era of partisan agreement and national pride. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was the U.S passing a law that admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. It also banned slavery from the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands located north. -
Nullification Crisis
The Nullification Crisis was a conflict between South Carolina and the Federal Government. The Nullification Crisis was caused by the introduction of a series of protective tariffs. Calhoun opposed these tariffs and this was the first time that tensions between the federal and states governments almost led to war. -
Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the first battle in the Civil War. The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the South Carolina military. As gun fire continued, the U.S army had to surrender. -
The Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam is the bloodiest day in history. This battle showed that the Union could hang with the Confederate army. This was also the battle that caused Abraham Lincoln to write the Emancipation Proclamation. -
The Gettysburg Adress
On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, at the official dedication ceremony for the National Cemetery of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, on the site of one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of the Civil War. Lincoln’s brief address would be remembered as one of the most important speeches in American history. -
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth and a few other conspirators made a plan to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was attending Laura Keene’s acclaimed performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. As the play continued, Booth slipped into the box and fired his .44-caliber single-shot derringer pistol into the back of Lincoln’s head.