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Oct 12, 1492
Discovery of America by Columbus
The discovery of Columbus to America, leading the entirety of Europe to have access to a "New world" -
The settlement of Jamestown
The settling of the new world by Europeans called the pilgrims who left Europe to find somewhere to practice their religion freely. (I'm a direct descendant of William Bradford! He's my 13th great-grandfather.) -
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French and Indian war
The war between England and the French with their allies. It provided Great Britain with much territory after they won the war -
The boston tea party
In an act of defiance against the British's new laws, some of the colonial people dressed and painted themselves as Native Americans and threw a lot of tea into Boston Harbour, making the British retaliate with a strict occupation force. -
The battle of Lexington and Concord
This marks the first battle of our timeline! Awesome!
The first clash of the Revolutionary War took place in Massachusetts, where the British troops tried to disband the patriots by seizing colonial weapons and arresting leaders. The colonists fought back fiercely and forced the British to retreat. This sparked the outbreak of war across America for freedom. -
The declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence declared America to be a sovereign nation and no longer a part of Britain. Think of it as the ultimate breakup letter. It declared the rights and sovereignty of the people. -
The battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown, also known as the Siege of Yorktown, was the one that won America the war. The last major battle for the United States, the British surrendered shortly after this. America was now it's own nation. -
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The constitutional convention
This drafted the U.S. Constitution, the supreme law of the land. They created the government as we know it today, revising the articles of confederation. -
The invention of the cotton gin
[Patented in 1794]
This invention made it easier to harvest cotton because it cleaned cotton of its seeds and produced only the raw cotton, speeding up the process of cotton production. -
The Alien and sedition acts
This restricted foreign influence in the United States and granted the president authority to deport non-citizens who were from foreign enemies. This also limited the ability to criticize the government in the press. -
The Louisiana Purchase
The USA purchased the western half of the Mississippi River basin from France for a mere three cents per acre. An absolute bargain. This doubled the land size of the USA and set Lewis and Clark's expedition off on May 14, 1804. -
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The war of 1812
The British decided to be annoying after the French Revolutionary War (1792-99). After Jefferson became president in 1801, relations crumbled and war started to brew. Britain captured American vessels, argued about their fort positions, and asked the Native Americans to strike USA territories.
This sparked a 3 year long war which was won yet again by the USA. -
The Missouri compromise
The Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and banned slavery north of the 36-degree parallel. This managed to keep the peace...for a time. -
Andrew Jackson's Election
Andrew Jackson was elected.
I have absolutely no other thing to say. -
Invention of the telegraph
[Patented on May 24, 1844]
The invention of the telegraph brought massive advantages to civilization. No longer would people have to wait for slow horses to deliver their mail, but now they could tell anyone anything they wanted with the push of a button! (Granted this was new and expensive, with many factors into who got the information you sent...but nevertheless...) -
The panic of 1837
The poor economy of early 1837 led people to panic, and a bank run ensued. This caused banks to run out of money to give and caused a major depression (Not the GREAT depression. The MAJOR one.)
This lasted until the mid-1840s....just like the great depression lasted until the early 1940s...
Early 2040s gonna be terrible? -
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Trail of tears
This event marks the forced displacement of thousands of Native American people. They were forced from their ancestral lands to the west of the Mississippi river and many would never see the land they once had ever again. -
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The Mexican-American war
The invasion of Mexico by the United States army after Mexico refused to recognize the treaties of Velasco and they believed Texas was their territory.
This was followed by a war. Because it always does. -
The compromise of 1850
This was a group of five bills that tried to balance slavery in new territories and stop the threat of a civil war. It failed terribly as we'll see 11 years later. -
The firing on Fort Sumter
After Abraham Lincoln was elected, many states left the Union. South Carolina was one of those states.
The union held a fort at the entrance of Charleston harbor which they would not give up. The men in there were starving and needed food badly. The confederacy fired on the fort and not a single man was killed in the fighting...until a malfunction in the surrendering 100-gun salute caused the only death of the engagement...the first of almost 1 million Americans who would die to bring freedom. -
The emancipation proclamation
"All persons held as slaves" (In states that were in rebellion against the US) "henceforward.....free."
This stopped slavery in all the states against the Union...the only true slave state left was Missouri, which was a part of the Union but had slaves... -
13th,14th, and 15th amendments
These amendments, known as the Reconstruction amendments, were adopted between 1865 and 1870, each addressing issues related to slavery, citizenship, and suffrage. -
Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
This was when the Civil War finally ended. After four years of fighting and over 1 million casualties...it ended with a few pen strokes as Lee surrendered to Grant. This was not the complete end, as some small armies were fighting throughout the deep south, but it was the end of the main fighting. It would not be declared won until August 20, 1866...when the nation was in deep mourning. -
Abraham Lincoln's assassination
"SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!"
These words rang out in Ford Theater as a man jumped out of the booth Abraham Lincoln was in. Words that the whole world would remember from then on. John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head, jumped from the booth, and broke his leg. He made his escape and Lincoln was declared dead at 7:22 AM on April 15th after being rushed to a nearby home. John was found in a barn, which was set aflame and he too was shot...either by his own hand or by a soldier's. -
Andrew Johnson's impeachment
Andrew Johnson was installed as the new president after Lincoln was shot. He was soon impeached because he violated the Tenure of Office Act. He avoided the charges narrowly. -
The Organization of the Standard Oil Trust
This set up the industrial empire for John D. Rockefeller who became the central holding agency conglomerating forty companies.
He gave them all the slip.....not. -
The Pullman and Homestead Strikes
Pullman strike: A strike of railroad workers who refused to work on trains that contained Pullman Sleeper Cars.
Homestead strike: Steelworkers went on strike because they cut their pay and Homestead mill fired them all. Shots were fired too, as it became violent.
Most of the strike leaders sat in jail for a long while after that.... -
The Spanish-American war
This was a war between the US and Spain which ended with the US acquiring territories in the western Pacific and Latin America.
Cuba was the primary thing fought over and it had its independence at the end of the war. -
Theodore "Teddy" Rosevelt becomes president
He was a great president who did many incredible things including creating one of the largest canals in history. -
The invention of the electric light, telephone, and airplane.
LIght:1879
Telephone:1876
Airplane: 1903
The great inventions of this era revolutionized the world in every way. Travel was cheaper and better with flights, the telephone made it easier to communicate with people than just with clicks, and the electric light made it easier to see in dark places and light up rooms safer than with candles and torches.
Now who was the first to put them all together...?