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Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a street fight between a "patriot" mob and a squad of British soldiers that occurred in 1770. The British Soldiers shot and killed five people in the mob. This led to a campaign by speech-writers to unite the colonies against Britain. -
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson presented the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. This is considered by many to be the "birth" of the United States. -
American Revolutionary War Officially Ends
The Treaty of Paris was ratified by Congress on January 14, 1784. Britain officially agreed to recognize the independence of its 13 former colonies as the new United States of America. -
U.S. Constitution
The U.S. Constitution established America's national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed basic rights for its citizens. It was signed by delegates of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. -
First President of the United States
George Washington was unanimously elected the first President of the United States in 1789. -
Bill of Rights Ratified
The U.S. Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791 and protected citizens' rights from an intrusive government. The Bill of Rights declared the human rights that all citizens of the United States have. -
Louisiana Purchase
The U.S. acquired the Louisiana Territory from France, nearly doubling the size of the United States. -
U.S. Slave Trade with Africa Ends
The United States passed a law that stated that no new slaves were permitted to be imported into the United States. The law went into effect in 1808, making the Atlantic slave trade illegal. -
War of 1812
The United States and Great Britain fought the War of 1812 after the British attempted to restrict U.S. trade. The War of 1812 was often celebrated as a "second war of independence" in the United States. -
Adams-Onís Treaty
The Adams-Onís Treaty was a treaty between the U.S. and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain. -
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830. 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 their lands. -
Seminole War Begins
The Seminole War began when the U.S. government attempted to force the Seminole off their traditional lands in Florida and into the Indian territory west of the Mississippi River. -
Texas War for Independence Begins
The Texas Revolution was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos in putting up armed resistance to the centralist government of Mexico. -
Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears was a series of forced relocations of Native American peoples from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States, to areas to the west that had been designated as Indian Territory. The forced relocation included all tribes located of east of the Mississippi. All tribes were to be relocated west of the Mississippi under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. -
Mexican-American War
The Mexican–American War was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848. It was primarily over the territory of Texas. -
Gold Discovered in California
The California Gold Rush 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. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase is a 29,670-square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States purchased via a treaty with Mexico. -
American Civil War
The American Civil War began at Fort Sumter in 1861 between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America. The war was sparked by debates over slavery. -
Abraham Lincoln Assassinated
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
Yellowstone National Park Established
By the Act of March 1, 1872, Congress established Yellowstone National Park in the Territories of Montana and Wyoming.
