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Sand Creek Massacre
The Sand Creek Massacre was a result of the Cheyenne raiding wagon trains and settlements. Colorado’s governor told a group of Natives to camp at Sand Creek. He then attacked them and 150-500 people died. This led to the Cheyenne agreeing to move to a reservation. -
13th Amendment Ratified
The 13th amendment abolished slavery completely in the United States. Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, but Union states who had slaves weren’t effected by that. The 13th amendment was passed at the end of the Civil War. -
William Seward Buys Alaska
Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from Russia for 2 cents an acre. It was initially called “Seward’s Folly” and “Seward’s Icebox”. Gold was discovered and the Klondike gold rush happened in 1896. Then oil was discovered, as well as other natural resources like fish, copper, timber, and coal. -
Andrew Johnson Impeached
Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives by a vote of 126-47. He was impeached for breaking the Tenure of Office Act. The Senate acquitted him by a vote of 35-19, one vote short of the 2/3s needed to convict him. -
Ulysses Grant Wins 1868 Election
Ulysses Grant won the 1868 election while receiving 73% of the electoral college votes. He was the president during an era of unprecedented growth and corruption. He beat Democrat Horatio Seymour. -
10 Miles of Track are Laid in One Day
The Union Pacific and Central Pacific were in a race to see who could lay the most track in a day. The Central Pacific won the race by laying 10 miles of track in 12 hours. They made sure the Union Pacific couldn’t beat their record by waiting until the UP only had 8 miles left to lay. -
The Union Pacific and Central Pacific meet at Promontory Point
The Central Pacific started in Sacramento and the Union Pacific started in Omaha. Congress decided the two companies would meet at Promontory Point, Utah. 1,775 miles of track were laid by the two companies. -
Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was to end discrimination. It stated it was a crime for any individual to deny full and equal use of public conveyances and public places. It lacked a strong enforcement mechanism. -
Battle of Little Bighorn
General Custer was sent to round up the Indians because gold was found. Sioux leader Sitting Bull rounded up warriors and prepared to fight. The Americans were outnumbered 2,000 to 250 and all of the Americans were killed. The Army came and crushed the uprising and forced the Sioux into a reservation. -
Brooklyn Bridge Opened
The Brooklyn Bridge was designed by John A. Roebling. It connected Manhattan and Brooklyn. It is the first suspension bridge. -
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890
During the Gilded Age, America developed a problem with monopolies. Trusts like the Standard Oil Trust dominates their product field. This was not good for the economy, as it erased competition. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 made monopolies illegal to protect trade and commerce. -
Basketball is Invented
Basketball was invented by James Naismith so his students could play a game less injury prone than football. This started what became spectator sports. Since people were starting to have more free time, they could go watch people play sports. -
Ellis Island Opens
Ellis Island opens as a site to process new immigrants. Annie Moore is the first to be processed. 12 million people passed through from 1892-1924. -
Plessy versus Ferguson
A court case that got to the Supreme Court. Plessy was 1/8 black and pointed it out while in the white only section on a train. He refused to move. The ruling of the case was that segregation is legal as long as facilities were separate but equal. -
Grandfather Clause Enacted
The grandfather clause was meant to allow illiterate white people to vote. The literacy test and poll tax restricted a majority of black people from voting, but it also effected some white people. The grandfather clause was a way to get around the poll tax and literacy test for white people. It said you could vote if your grandfather could vote. -
USS Maine Explodes
The USS Maine was in the Havana harbor in Cuba to protect U.S. citizens and property. It exploded, and the destruction was blamed on the Spanish. This event started the brief Spanish-American War. -
Battle of Manila Bay
The Battle of Manila Bay was a naval battle that took place right off the Philippines. George Dewey led the American Navy and destroyed the Spanish Navy. The battle took 6 hours to complete. -
Battle of San Juan Hill
The Battle of San Juan Hill took place in Cuba, with the Spanish forces on top of the hill and the Americans trying to take the hill. The Rough Riders led by Theodore Roosevelt were crucial in the American victory. The black soldiers of the 9th and 10th regiments also played crucial roles for the Americans, although they are rarely given credit. -
Theodore Roosevelt Becomes President
Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th president after President McKinley was assassinated. He was the youngest President in American History at 42 years old. He became known for breaking up trusts and earned the knick name “Trust-Buster”. He set aside land for National Parks, which made people start to value nature and set apart land all over the world. -
Most Immigrants Ever Pass Through Ellis Island
11,747 immigrants passed through Ellis Island on this date. That was the most immigrants to pass through on a single date. Quotas restricted the amount of immigrants in 1924, and Ellis Island closed down in 1954. -
Woodrow Wilson Wins 1912 Presidential Election
Woodrow Wilson won the 1912 Presidential Election over William Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. Wilson failed to continue progressivism in America, as African-American rights declined. He downplayed the founding principles of America and turned the U.S. into a “nanny state” which means government is the solution to all problems. -
Panama Canal Officially Opens
After Panama declared its independence from Columbia, America declared the “Canal Zone” in Panama and paid them $10 million. The canal was started in 1904 and ended in 1914. It is 8,000 miles long, and America had to pay Panama a $250 thousand rent. America handed control of the canal over to Panama in 1999. -
Women’s Party Begins to Picket White House
The Women’s Party picketed the White House as a protest so they could gain the right to vote. Officials couldn’t do anything about it because they weren’t breaking any laws. Eventually they came up with something and arrested some people. They turned the President’s words against him on some signs. -
Zimmerman Note
The Zimmerman Note was a telegram from Germany to Mexico, but it was intercepted by the British. Germany was promising Mexico Texas back from the United States. It was the catalyst that ultimately led to America joining WWI. -
Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act prevented people from doing actions that would prevent others from enlisting in the military. It also allowed the Postmaster General to remove Leftist material from the mail. It was punishable with fines up to $10,000 or 20 years in prison. -
18th Amendment Passed
The 18th Amendment was Prohibition, or the banning of selling or making alcohol. It failed because people illegally made moonshine (and sometimes lost their sight), and their were bootleggers, speakeasies, and rum runners. It also failed because the government didn’t budget enough money to enforce the law, so about 1,500 federal agents were tasked with stopping illegal alcohol. -
19th Amendment Ratified
The 19th amendment gave women the ability to vote. Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, sending it into effect. This ended the battle Susan B. Anthony started when she tried to vote in 1872, even though she didn’t live to see it. -
Charles Lindbergh Flew Across Atlantic Ocean
Charles Lindbergh flew from New York City to France. He was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. He became a celebrity because of his feat, but because of his popularity his baby was kidnapped and found dead later. -
Steamboat Willie Released
Technology improved a lot in the 1920s, and it really progressed in the entertainment industry. Steamboat Willie was the first animated clip with sound. By the 1930s millions of Americans went to the movies each week. -
Stock Market Crash in 1929
The stock market crash on October 29, 1929 is also called Black Tuesday. Losses exceeded $26 billion, people went from millionaires to having nothing. This caused people to panic and sell their stocks, but nobody wanted them. -
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Passed
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff was the greasiest mistake of the Hoover administration. It raised tariffs on U.S. imports up to 50%. This act messed up international trade and some countries stopped trading with America. -
Jane Addams Wins the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize
Jane Addams was recognized in 1931 for her work in helping poor people and immigrants. She founded the Hull House in Chicago to help the poor people and immigrants that needed resources. Hull House provided day-care, job training, a community center, and a gymnasium. -
Revenue Act of 1932 Passed
The Revenue Act of 1932 raised the income tax. It became the largest peacetime income tax in history. This is because the government blamed deflation and bankruptcies on an unbalanced federal budget. -
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Becomes President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the 1932 election over Herbert Hoover. He immediately got to work, accomplishing a lot in his first hundred days. He promised a New Deal, and relief, recovery, and reform. -
Works Progress Administration Founded
The Works Progress Administration, or WPA, was a program to supply jobs to the unemployed. It was the largest peacetime jobs program. Other programs were the Civilian Conservation Corps(CCC) and the Tennessee Valley Authority(TVA). -
Germany Invades Poland
This is the event that started World War Two. After invading Poland, Germany took over France, which causes Britain to fight back, with allies in Canada, Australia, and South Africa. The Unite States supported Britain with resources such as oil, weapons, food, and aircraft on a “cash and carry” basis. This later became a “Lend-lease” basis. -
Pearl Harbor Attacked
Japan wanted to cripple the United States’ Navy before they joined the war, so they launched a surprise attack when they thought the Pacific Fleet would all be at Pearl Harbor. Fortunately, not all of the fleet was there. The U.S. declares war the next day. -
Battle of Stalingrad Starts
The Battle of Stalingrad turned out to be a key turning point in the war for the Allies. Russia was defending the industrial city against the Germans. The battle ended up being close to a year long, but the Russians were successful because the Germans only had summer uniforms and couldn’t survive the Russian winter. Russia still lost one million men in the battle. -
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord, also known as D-Day, was the successful attempt for the Allies to get back onto mainland Europe, in France. There were 3 million British, American, and Canadian troops making an amphibious landing at 5 different locations. The German retaliation was brutal, especially at Omaha Beach, but the Allies eventually succeeded. -
Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day)
After the Battle of the Bulge- Hitler’s last major offensive, the Germans had been driven back to Germany and were going to lose the war. The Soviet Army took Berlin in April 25th, and Hitler committed suicide on the 30th. Sadly, President Roosevelt died of stoke on April 12th, so he didn’t get to see the Allied victory. -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima
Even though the war was finished in Europe, America still had to beat Japan. After successfully island hopping their way toward mainland Japan, they realized invading mainland Japan would result in a ton of casualties on both sides. They dropped leaflets warning pedestrians to leave the city as they were bombing targets, and then they dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima 5 days later. -
Truce Signed to End Korean War
Korea was divided at the 38th parallel to separate Korea into North and South. The United States was worried about losing the area to communism due to the Domino Theory. After a war between the North and South, with American helping the South, an armistice was signed to end the fighting. -
Fidel Castro Takes Over Cuba
Fidel Castro took over Cuba and made it a communist country. The United States didn’t like communism being so close to home so they launched an attack at the Bay of Pigs, but it failed. The Soviet Union also supplied Cuba with missiles which caused the Cuban Missile Crisis. -
Hawaii becomes 50th State
Hawaii became the 50th state, months after Alaska became the 49th state. Business groups overthrew Queen Liliuokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1867 and set up a government run by Sanford B. Dole. Hawaii became a United States territory in 1898 under President McKinley and then a state in 1959. -
The Gulf Tonkin Incident
The North Vietnamese attacked 2 American naval ships at the Gulf of Tonkin. It was also reported an attack happen on August 4th as well, but it is unclear if that happened. This event led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers. -
Moon Landing
The Soviet Union beat America to put the first object in space and the first person in space. But American won the moon race, putting Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. They planted an American flag, and America is still the only nation to put someone on the moon. -
4 Student Killed at Kent State
As the war went on in Vietnam, the war became less popular in the United States. There were an uptick in protests to end the war, especially among college students. There were 2 instances in a week where students were killed during a protest. 4 were killed at Kent State and 2 were killed at Jackson State about a week later. -
Communist Forces take Saigon
Even though the United States had pulled out of the war, it wasn’t over yet. It took North Vietnam about 3 more years to take over the South. After North Vietnam took over the Presidential Palace in Saigon the war was over. Saigon was then renamed Ho Chi Minh City. -
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Completed
The Vietnam Memorial was a contest. There were four criteria: it must be reflective and contemplative, it must harmonize with its surroundings, it must contain the names of troops killed or missing in action, and it must not make a political statement about the war. Maya Ying Lin won the contest, and as of now the wall has 58,318 names. -
The Berlin Wall Falls
The Berlin Wall was put up in 1961 to keep people in East Germany. After Mikhail Gorbachev renounced the Brezhnev Doctrine, people in Germany were now safe to revolt. After public demonstrations, the wall fell and Germany was unified on September 12th, 1990. -
Mikhail Gorbachev Resigns
The Soviet Union fell when Gorbachev resigned and declared his office extinct. He handed power to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. This event marked the end of the Cold War. The Soviet Union was formally dissolved the next day, December 26, 1991.
