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Oct 12, 1492
Columbus arrives in Western Hemmisphere
After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived at a Bahamian island, believing he had reached East Asia. -
Period: Jan 1, 1509 to Jan 1, 1547
Henry VII rules England, Protestant reformation begins in England
Henry won the throne when his forces defeated the forces of King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. He ruled England August 22, 1485 to April 21, 1509. The Protestant Reformation was the religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe. -
Period: Jan 1, 1558 to
Reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Ireland conquered by England
Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558 and ruled England for almost 45 years. Her reign is known as The Golden Age. Under Queens Mary I and Elizabeth I, the English in Ireland tried a number of solutions to pacify the country. -
Jamestown Founded
In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to start a settlement. Named after King James I, the settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America. -
Tabacco made a profitable crop by John Rolfe
Rolfe began cultivating tobacco seeds grown in the West Indies. When the new tobacco was sent to England, it proved immensely popular, helping to break the Spanish monopoly on tobacco and create a stable economy for Virginia. -
First legislative assembly meets in Virginia
There were 22 burgesses, together with Governor Yeardley and the Council which met on July 30, 1619 in the church at Jamestown, Virginia. -
First group of blacks brought to Virginia
In August of 1619 a Dutch manof-war with about 20 Africans on board entered port at the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia.They were considered indentured servants, who worked under contract for a certain period of time before they were granted freedom. Their historic arrival marked the beginning of an atrocious trend in colonial America, in which the people of Africa were taken unwillingly from their motherland and assigned to lifelong slavery. -
First Pilgrims in Plymouth
Due to economic difficulties, as well as fears that they would lose their English language and heritage, the pilgrims began to make plans to settle in the New World.In 1620, the pilgrims joined a London stock company that financed their trip aboard the Mayflower. -
Indian attacks in Virginia end hopes of becoming a bi-racial society
By 1622 colonists intended to expand their holdings in Virginia.This expansion threatened the Indian way of life.Opechancanough's response to the threat of cultural deconstruction was to attack the English settlement as an attempt to drive off the English. The Indians killed families in the plantation houses and moved on to kill in the fields. The Powhatans killed 347 settlers in all. -
Great Puritan migration to Massachusetts Bay
The Puritans were leaving stable economic lives in a corrupt England for an uncertain future in a land where they could build a City Upon a Hill.They came to America live righteous and spiritual lives. -
Harvard founded
Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States, established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.Harvard was founded in anticipation of the need for training clergy for the new commonwealth. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion in 1676 by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.The cause of the rebellion was Governor Berkeley's refusal to retaliate for a series of Native American attacks on frontier settlements. -
Creation of Dominion of New England
In 1686, all of New England was joined in an administrative merger, the Dominion of New England. Joseph Dudley served briefly as the first president of the Dominion, but was replaced by Sir Edmund Andros.The Dominion experienced little success, due largely to colonial intransigence and came to an abrupt halt in 1689. -
Glorious Revolution in England
The 1688 Revolution, often referred to as the ‘Glorious Revolution of 1688’, ended the reign of James II and ushered in the reign of William III and Mary II. The 1688 Revolution came at the end of a reign when James II had made it all too clear that he wanted Roman Catholicism reinstalled as the country’s religion. -
250,000 settlers in English colonies
In 1700, there were about 250,000 European and African settlers in North America’s thirteen English colonies. -
First colonial newspaper
On 24 April 1704, John Campbell published the first issue of the Boston News-Letter. A small single sheet, printed on both sides, the News-Letter made history as the first continuously published newspaper in America. -
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Great Awakening
The Great Awakening was a revitalization of religious piety that swept through the American colonies. Religious enthusiasm quickly spread from the Presbyterians of the Middle Colonies to the Puritans and Baptists of New England.George Whitefield and Johnathan Edwards preached a message of atonement for sins by admitting them to God. -
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French and Indian War
Britain and France fought for control of the Ohio Valley and Canada. The colonies fought under British commanders. Britain eventually won, and gained control of all of the remaining French possessions in Canada. -
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Pontiac's Rebellion
Pontiac’s Rebellion begins when a confederacy of Native American warriors under Ottawa chief Pontiac attacks the British force at Detroit.In the spring of 1764, two British armies were sent out, one into Pennsylvania and Ohio and the other to the Great Lakes. -
Proclamation Line established
In 1763, at ethe end of the French and Indian War, the British issued a proclamation,mainly intended to conciliate the Indians by checking the encroachment of settlers on their lands. It forbade colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. -
Period: to
Sugar Act and Stamp Act Controversies
The Sugar Act set a tax on sugar and molasses imported into the colonies which impacted the manufacture of rum in New England.The Stamp Act was the first direct tax on the American colonies. It set a tax in the form of a stamp required on all newspapers, legal and commercial documents. -
Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act provided the British with a broad mandate to impose laws, and taxes, on the American colonies. Within a year of the passing of the Declaratory Act new trade laws were imposed on America.It stated that the British Parliament’s taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British regulars. A squad of British soldiers let loose a volley of shots. Three persons were killed immediately and two died later of their wounds. -
Committees of Correspondence formed
The Virginia House of Burgesses proposed that each colonial legislature appoint a standing committee for intercolonial correspondence. Within a year, nearly all had joined the network, and more committees were formed at the town and county levels. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party served as a protest against taxation. Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. -
Coercive Acts, First Continental Congress convenes
In response to the British Parliament’s enactment of the Coercive Acts in the American colonies, the first session of the Continental Congress convenes at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia. Fifty-six delegates from all the colonies except Georgia drafted a declaration of rights and grievances and elected Virginian Peyton Randolph as the first president of Congress. -
Revolution begins with fighting at Lexington and Concord
Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts. A confrontation on the Lexington town green started off the fighting, and soon the British were hastily retreating under intense fire. -
Townshed Act, New York Assembly suspended
The Townshend Acts of 1767 were a series of laws which set new import taxes on British goods including paint, paper, lead, glass and tea and used revenues to maintain British troops in America and to pay the salaries of some Royal officials who were appointed to work in the American colonies. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence formalized the colonies' separation from Britain and laid out the Enlightenment values of natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. -
British defeated at Saratoga
The defeat of the British at Saratoga was a turning point of the Revolution in October 1777, when an army of 6,000 British soldiers surrendered in New York; the battle resulted from a British attempt to divide the colonies through the Hudson River Valley. -
French join the war agaisnt the British
On February 6, 1778, France and the United States signed a “Treaty of Alliance” as well as another treaty of “Amity and Commerce.” The French declaration of war against Great Britain changed everything. The British were now involved in a worldwide war, not just an attempt to put down a rebellion. -
Articles of Confederation ratified
The Articles were signed by Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification on November 15, 1777, after 16 months of debate. Bickering over land claims between Virginia and Maryland delayed final ratification for almost four years. Maryland finally approved the Articles on March 1, 1781, affirming the Articles as the outline of the official government of the United States. -
Battle of Yorktown
Battle of Yorktown was a siege that ended on October 19,1781 when Washington trapped 8,000 British soldiers on a peninsula in Virginia after a British campaign in the southern colonies. -
Peace signed in Paris
The Treaty of Paris of 1783, negotiated between the United States and Great Britain, ended the revolutionary war and recognized American independence. -
Period: to
Northwest Ordinance of 1784, 1785, and 1787
The ordinances were enacted by the U.S. Congress for the purpose of establishing orderly and equitable procedures for the settlement and political incorporation of the Northwest Territory. -
Annapolis Convention
In this convention, states near the Chesapeake Bay area talked about the lowering of taxes and tariffs to increase trade between states. Alexander Hamilton told the states to meet one year later in Philadelphia so they could overhaul the Articles of Confederation. -
Shays' Rebellion
Captain Daniel Shays led back country farmers in a rebellion because many people were losing their farms through mortgage, foreclosures, and tax delinquencies. The rebellion ended when troops broke up Shays' mob in Boston. -
Constitutional Convention
Delegates from all states but Georgia met in Philadelphia to discuss the Articles of Confederation. This convention resulted in a new constitution. -
Constitution ratified
The bill of rights are the first ten amendments added to the constitution and enumerated the rights of men. Many colonies refused to sign the Constitution until these rights were added to the Constitution. -
Federalist Papers written
The Federalist Papers were a series of eighty-five essays urging the citizens of New York to ratify the new United States Constitution. Written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. -
French Revolution begins
French Revolution began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte. During this period, French citizens razed and redesigned their country’s political landscape, uprooting centuries-old institutions such as absolute monarchy and the feudal system. -
George Washington inaugurated as President of the United States
As president, Washington sought to unite the nation and protect the interests of the new republic at home and abroad. He successfully implemented executive authority, made good use of brilliant politicians such as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson in his cabinet, and quieted fears of presidential tyranny. -
Capital placed on the Potomac River
In 1790 the U.S. Congress established a 100-square-mile territory to serve as the permanent seat of the federal government. -
Citizen Genet
Genet arrived in Charleston, South Carolina on April 8, 1793, calling himself “Citizen Genet” to emphasize his pro-revolutionary stance. Genet immediately began to issue privateering commissions upon his arrival. -
Whiskey Rebellion
Angered by an excise tax imposed on whiskey in 1791, farmers in Pennsylvania engaged in a series of attacks on excise agents. The rebel farmers continued their attacks, rioting in river towns and roughing up tax collectors until the insurrection flared into the open in July of 1794 when a federal marshal was attacked in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. -
Indians defeated at Fallen Timbers
The Battle of Timbers was the last major conflict of the Northwest Territory Indian War between Native Americans and the United States. General Anthony Wayne led American troops to a decisive victory against a confederation of Native Americans. -
Jay Treaty
Representatives of the United States and Great Britain signed Jay's Treaty, which sought to settle outstanding issues between the two countries that had been left unresolved since American independence. -
Pinckney Treaty
Pinckney's Treaty was signed in San Lorenzo de El Escorial and established intentions of friendship between the United States and Spain. -
Alien and Sedition Acts
A series of laws known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by the Federalist Congress in 1798 and signed into law by President Adams. These laws included new powers to deport foreigners as well as making it harder for new immigrants to vote. -
Un-declared war with France
An undeclared war between the United States and France, the Quasi-War was the result of disagreements over treaties and America's status as a neutral in the Wars of the French Revolution. -
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
The resolutions opposed the federal Alien and Sedition Acts, which extended the powers of the federal government. The resolutions were written by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson’s principal arguments were that the national government was a compact between the states and that any exercise of undelegated authority on its part was invalid. -
Jefferson elected
Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson defeated Federalist John Adams by a margin of seventy-three to sixty-five electoral votes in the presidential election of 1800. -
Loouisiana Purchase
The United States purchased approximately 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France, thereby doubling the size of the young republic. What was known as 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. -
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Embargo in effect
The embargo Act was passed as an alternative to war.Although it was successful in averting war, the embargo failed to have a significant effect on the British. -
Slave trade ended
The widespread trade of slaves within the South was not prohibited, however, and children of slaves automatically became slave themselves, thus ensuring a self-sustaining slave population in the South. -
Non-intercourse Act
The Non-Intercourse Act prohibited imports from Britain and France and banned their ships from US ports. This Act lifted all embargoes on American shipping except for those bound for British or French ports. -
War with England
The war of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States and Great Britain over British violations of U.S. maritime rights. It ended with the exchange of ratifications of the Treaty of Ghent. -
Treaty of Ghent
The Treaty of Ghent was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. -
Romanticism flourished in America
Romanticism in the USA coincided with a period of national expansion, a solidification of national identity and the search for a distinctive American voice. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. -
First labor unions formed
For those in the industrial sector, organized labor unions fought for better wages, reasonable hours and safer working conditions. The labor movement led efforts to stop child labor, give health benefits and provide aid to workers who were injured or retired. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine proclaimed that European powers would no longer colonize or interfere with the affairs of the newly independent nations of the Americas. The United States planned to stay neutral in wars between European powers and their colonies. -
Andrew Jackson elected
The United States presidential election of 1828 featured a rematch between John Quincy Adams, now incumbent President, and Andrew Jackson. Jackson's appeal to the "common folk" served him well and he handily won the popular vote and the electoral vote. -
Liberator founded
The Liberator was an abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp. -
Nat Turner's rebellion
Turner had a vision iof a bloody conflict between black and white spirits. Turner and his supporters began their revolt against white slave owners with the killing the Travis family.They faced off against a group of armed white men at a plantation near Jerusalem, and the conflict soon dissolved into chaos. Turner fled into the woods. -
Nullificaton crisis
South Carolina passed an ordinance of nullification on November 24, 1832, and threatened to secede if the federal government attempted to collect the 1832 tariff duties. -
Whig party formed
In 1834 political opponents of President Andrew Jackson organized a new party to contest Jacksonian Democrats nationally and in the states. -
Texas Revolution
The Texas Revolution was a political and military insurrection by settlers and inhabitants of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas against the Mexican government. -
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas was an independent sovereign country in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. -
Telegraph and railroads create a communications revolution
The telegraph worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. By 1840, railroads crisscrossed the state of New York. Many small railroads joined together to connect their tracks and form larger companies. -
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny is a term for the attitude prevalent during the 19th century period of American expansion that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast. -
Mexican war begins
The Mexican-American War marked the first U.S. armed conflict chiefly fought on foreign soil. -
U.S. acquires California and territory of New Mexico which includes present-day Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and part of Colorado
Under the treaty of Guadaluper Hidalgo, Mexico recognized the U.S. annexation of Texas, and agreed to sell California and the rest of its territory north of the Rio Grande for $15 million plus the assumption of certain damages claims. -
Gold discovered in California
On January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Coloma, California. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended Mexican War
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially entitled the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic. -
Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850 consisted of laws admitting California as a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories, settling a Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute, ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C., and making it easier for southerners to recover fugitive slaves. -
California admitted to the union
Mexico and the United States signed a treaty which ended the Mexican War and yielded a vast portion of the Southwest, including present day California, to the United States.California became the thirty-first state of the United States. -
Fugitive Slave Law strengthened
The Fugitive Slave Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the United States. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 added further provisions regarding runaways and levied even harsher punishments for interfering in their capture. -
Gadsden Purchase
It was the Gadsden Purchase that settled the main boundaries of the United States of America. Gadsden’s Purchase provided the land necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad and attempted to resolve conflicts that lingered after the Mexican-American War. -
Republican Party formed
By February 1854, anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party. One such meeting, in Wisconsin on March 20, 1854, is generally remembered as the founding meeting of the Republican Party. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. -
Violence in Kansas
Bleeding Kansas was a violent civil disturbances in Kansas over the question of whether the territory would be slave or free. The calm in Kansas was shattered by two events that began a small civil war. The Free Soil town of Lawrence was sacked by an armed pro‐slavery force and abolitionist John Brown and six followers executed five men along the Pottawatomie Creek. -
Senator Sumner attached in the Senate
Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was an avowed abolitionist sand leader of the Republican Party. Preston Brooks beat Sumner with a wooden cane, stopping only when the cane shattered. -
Lincoln Douglas debates
Lincoln and Douglas participated in seven debates throughout Illinois, one in each of the state's Congressional districts. -
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
John Brown and a group of his supporters left their farmhouse hide-out en route to Harpers Ferry. They captured prominent citizens and seized the federal armory and arsenal -
Democratic Party splits apart
Northern Democrats were firm in their belief that slavery should not expand into the western territories. Southern Democrats were just as adamant that slave owners should be able to take their slaves wherever they pleased. -
Abraham Lincoln elected 16th President of the United States
Lincoln received the nomination from the Republican Convention in 1860. The first president from The Republican Party, Lincoln was responsible for many large changes and is an icon in American History. -
Lower South secedes
Convinced that their way of life, based on slavery, was threatened by the election of President Abraham Lincoln, the seven states of the Deep South (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas) seceded from the Union. -
Confederate States of America formed
On February 8, 1861, representatives of the southern seceded states announced the formation of the Confederate States of America, with its capital at Montgomery, Alabama. -
Morrill Tariff
Morrill Tariff was signed into law by Democratic President James Buchanan to protect northern infant industries. The Morrill Tariff act of 1861 began a change toward a higher range of duties and a stronger application of protection. -
Civil War begins at Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War. -
North is defeated at the first battle of Bull Run
Union and Confederate armies clashed near Manassas Junction, Virginia, in the first major land battle of the Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run.The Confederate victory gave the South a surge of confidence and shocked many in the North. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Act encouraged Western migration by providing settlers 160 acres of public land.In exchange, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land. -
Battle of Antietam
Generals Robert E. Lee and George McClellan faced off in the the first battle of the American Civil War to be fought on northern soil. Fought along Antietam Creek, at Sharpsburg, Maryland, this battle brought about America’s bloodiest day, the product of Confederate audacity and Union command failure. -
Emancipation Proclamation issued (effective January 1, 1863)
On September 22, soon after the Union victory at Antietam, Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” -
Grant's wilderness campaign
The Battle of the Wilderness marked the first stage of a major Union offensive toward the Confederate. Familiar terrain for the rebels, the heavy woods and dense undergrowth made it nearly impossible for a large army to make an orderly advance. Grant refused to retreat and ordered his battered troops to continued southward in what would be a long and costly, but successful campaign. -
Sherman takes Atlanta
Union forces commanded by William T. Sherman, wanting to neutralize the important rail and supply hub, defeated Confederate forces defending the city under John B. Hood. After ordering the evacuation of the city, Sherman burned most of the buildings in the city, military or not. After taking the city, Sherman headed south toward Savannah, beginning his Sherman’s March To The Sea. -
Sherman's "March to the Sea"
Sherman led his troops on a destructive campaign which concluded with the capture of the port city of Savannah on December 21. It is known for its boldness as well as the sheer destruction inflicted on the south, both to its industry as well as military targets, effectively destroying the Confederate’s capacity to wage war. -
Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery
The thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States and was the first of three Reconstruction Amendments adopted in the five years following the American Civil War. -
Sherman takes South and North Carolina
Sherman began his Carolinas Campaign on February 1. His men met their first conferderate resistance in South Carolina on February 3. By February 17, Sherman's men took Columbia. With Columbia subdued, Sherman's forces continued their advance toward North Carolina. On March 19, Sherman's forces engaged General Johnston's men at the Battle of Bentonville, the last major Confederate offensive of the Civil War. Raleigh surrendered in April, and Johnston surrendered at Bennett Place on April 26. -
Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House
Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his approximately 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the front parlor of Wilmer McLean’s home in Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War. -
Lincoln assassinated
John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
Andrew Johnson becomes president
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States. Johnson became president as he was Vice President at the time of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. -
KKK founded
In Pulaski, Tennessee, a group of Confederate veterans convenes to form a secret society that they christen the “Ku Klux Klan.” Most prominent in counties where the races were relatively balanced, the KKK engaged in terrorist raids against African Americans and white Republicans. -
First Reconstruction Act launches Radical Reconstruction
Congress enacted the Reconstruction Act, which, supplemented later by three related acts, divided the South into five military districts in which the authority of the army commander was supreme. -
Alaska purchased
On March 30, 1867, the United States reached an agreement to purchase Alaska from Russia for a price of $7.2 million. -
Johnson impeached
The U.S. House of Representatives votes 11 articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson. He attempted to fire his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, without Senate approval. Firing Stanton violated the Tenure of Office Act. The House vote made President Johnson the first president to be impeached in U.S. history. -
Fourteenth Amendment guarantees Civil Rights
It is the principle of citizenship for all persons born in the United States, and which empowered the federal government to protect the rights of all Americans. This includes the former slaves that were recently freed. -
Terrorism against blacks in the South
In the South, an estimated two or three blacks were lynched each week in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In Mississippi alone, 500 blacks were lynched from the 1800s to 1955. -
Flourishing of Darwinism and ideas of racial inferiority
According to Darwin's theory, the weak were diminished and their cultures delimited, while the strong grew in power and in cultural influence over the weak. -
Fifteenth Amendment forbid denial of vote on racial grounds
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
End of reconstruction
By 1876, the nation was prepared to abandon its commitment to equality for all citizens regardless of race. With the compromise, the Republicans had quietly given up their fight for blacks' rights in the south. -
Battle of Little Big Horn
Determined to resist the efforts of the U.S. Army to force them onto reservations, Indians under the leadership of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wipe out Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and much of his 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. -
Munn v. Illinois: Court rules states may regulate warehouse rates
Illinois regulated grain warehouse and elevator rates by establishing maximum rates for their use. -
Big business emerge
Economic transformation happened with astonishing speed, over a dozen years or so, running from the late 1880s through the 1890s. In this short span, in a series of industries, new businesses were organized and old businesses reorganized to create enterprises that encompassed huge manufacturing plants. -
Pendleton Civil Service Act
The Pendleton Civil Service Act was a landmark U.S. legislation establishing the tradition and mechanism of permanent federal employment based on merit rather than on political party affiliation. -
Railroad companies divide the nation into four time zones
The need for continental time zones stemmed directly from the problems of moving passengers and freight over the thousands of miles of rail line that covered North America. -
Haymarket Riots
On May 4, 1886, a labor protest rally near Chicago’s Haymarket Square turned into a riot after someone threw a bomb at police. At least eight people died as a result of the violence that day. The Haymarket Riot was viewed a setback for the organized labor movement in America, which was fighting for such rights as the eight-hour workday. -
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission, the first regulatory commission in U.S. history, was established as a result of mounting public indignation in the 1880s against railroad malpractices and abuses. -
Dawes Act
The 1887 Dawes Act allotted reservation lands to individual Indians in units of 40 to 160 acres. Land that remained after allotment was to be sold to whites to pay for Indian education. The Dawes Act was supposed to encourage Indians to become farmers. But most of the allotted lands proved unsuitable for farming, owing to a lack of sufficient rainfall. The plots were also too small to support livestock. -
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act not only required the U.S. government to purchase nearly twice as much silver as before, but also added substantially to the amount of money already in circulation. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act threatened, when put into operation, to undermine the U.S. Treasury's gold reserves. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act authorized the federal government to institute proceedings against trusts in order to dissolve them, but Supreme Court rulings prevented federal authorities from using the act for some years. -
Massacre at Wounded Knee
T U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under Big Foot, a Lakota Sioux chief, near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. A fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier and a shot was fired. A brutal massacre followed, in which it’s estimated 150 Indians were killed. -
Repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act
President Cleveland was convinced that the drain on US gold reserves was due to the Sherman Silver Act. He called Congress into special session, and was able to convince them to repeal the act. -
Pollock v Farmers
Pollock v. Farmers was a U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court voided portions of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 that imposed a direct tax on the incomes of American citizens and corporations, thus declaring the federal income tax unconstitutional. -
War with Spain
The Spanish-American War was a conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. -
Hawaii annexed
The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was sovereign from 1810 until 1893 when the monarchy was overthrown by resident American businessmen. President Benjamin Harrison submitted a treaty to annex the Hawaiian islands to the U.S. Senate for ratification. -
Peace with Spain U.S. recieves Philippines, Samoa, Guam and Puerto Rico
In 1898, besides Cuba, the Spanish government controlled Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Guam was interesting to the United States and European countries as a potential spot for military bases. America's war with Spain in 1898 took its military to each of these colonies. -
Gold Standard
Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act, which officially ended the use of silver as a standard of United Stares currency and established gold as the only standard. -
Theodore Roosevelt becomes President
The rising young Republican politician Theodore Roosevelt unexpectedly became the 26th president of the United States in September 1901, after the assassination of William McKinley. -
Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine had been sought to prevent European intervention in the Western Hemisphere, but now the Roosevelt Corollary justified American intervention throughout the Western Hemisphere. -
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Panama Canal Built
The canal allowed ships to travel between the two oceans more safely and in half the time. In 1999 the Panamanian government took control of the canal. -
Hepburn Act
The Hepburn Act of 1906 was a bill that fortified the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission and strengthened federal regulation of railroads. -
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair wrote "The Jungle," filling it with page after page of nauseating detail he had researched about the meat-packing industry, and dropped it on an astonished nation in 1906. -
Election of Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson was elected president in 1912 after serving only two years as governor of New Jersey. -
Sixteenth Amendment authorizing income tax ratified
In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the U.S. tax system. The amendment gave Congress legal authority to tax income and resulted in a revenue law that taxed incomes of both individuals and corporations. -
Seventeenth Amendment providing for direct election of Senators ratified
The seventeenth Amendment states that the Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. -
Wilson broadens segregation in civil service
The question of federal segregation was first discussed in high administration circles at a closed cabinet meeting. At the Cabinet meeting Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson argued for segregating the Railway Mail Service. They were disturbed by whites and blacks working in the Railway Mail Service train cars. The workers shared glasses, towels, and washrooms. -
Federal Reserve System begun
The Federal Reserve was created by the Congress to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. -
U.S. troops occupy Vera Cruz
The United States occupation of Veracruz began with the Battle of Veracruz and lasted for seven months, as a response to the Tampico Affair of April 9, 1914. -
World War 1 begins
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia. An escalation of threats and mobilization orders followed the incident, leading to the outbreak of World War I, which pitted Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Japan (the Allied Powers). -
KKK revived
In 1915, white Protestant nativists organized a revival of the Ku Klux Klan near Atlanta, Georgia. This second generation of the Klan was not only anti-black but also took a stand against Roman Catholics, Jews, foreigners and organized labor. -
Lusiania sunk, U.S. intervened
A German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner en route from New York to Liverpool, England. Of the more than 1,900 passengers and crew members on board, more than 1,100 perished, including more than 120 Americans. -
U.S. toops sent to Haiti
Following the assassination of the Haitian President, President Woodrow Wilson sent the United States Marines into Haiti to restore order and maintain political and economic stability in the Caribbean. -
Germany issues Sussex pledge
The Sussex Pledge was a promise made in 1916 during World War I by Germany to the United States prior to the latter's entry into the war -
Russian Revolution
By 1917, most Russians had lost faith in the leadership ability of Czar Nicholas II. Militarily, imperial Russia was no match for industrialized Germany, and Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any nation in any previous war. Meanwhile, the economy was hopelessly disrupted by the costly war effort, and moderates joined Russian radical elements in calling for the overthrow of the czar. -
U.S. enters WWI
On April 6, 1917, two days after the U.S. Senate votes 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the U.S. House of Representatives endorses the decision by a vote of 373 to 50, and the United States formally enters the First World War. -
WWI ends
At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. -
Red Scare
During the Red Scare of 1919 - 1920, many in the United States feared recent immigrants and dissidents, particularly those who embraced communist, socialist, or anarchist ideology. -
Eighteenth Amendment prohibits alcoholic beverages
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol, which began the era of Prohibition. -
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace document signed at the end of World War I by the Allied and Associated Powers and by Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, France. -
Nineteenth Amendment gives women the right to vote
During America’s early history as a nation, women were denied some of the key rights enjoyed by male citizens. With 23-year-old Representative Harry T. Burn’s vote, the 19th Amendment was ratified. On November 2, more than 8 million women across the U.S. voted in elections for the first time. -
First radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh
The first commercial radio station was KDKA in Pittsburgh, which went on the air in the evening of Nov. 2, 1920, with a broadcast of the returns of the Harding-Cox presidential election. -
Washington Naval Conference
The Washington Naval Conference was a disarmament effort occasioned by the hugely expensive naval construction rivalry that existed among Britain, Japan and the United States. -
Revenue Act slashes income tax on wealthy and coorperations
The Revenue Act of 1924 was part of the Mellon Plan to lower tax rates and established the U.S. Board of Tax Appeals. The bill introduced tax cuts but included a gift tax for the wealthy. -
Lindenbergh crosses the Atlantic
Charles Lindbergh, an American aviator, made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21, 1927. Other pilots had crossed the Atlantic before him, but Lindbergh was the first person to do it alone nonstop. -
Stock market crashes
in 1929, Black Tuesday hit Wall Street. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression. -
Franklin Roosevelt elected
FDR became the 32nd U.S. president in 1933, and was the only president to be elected four times. He was elected President in November 1932, to the first of four terms. -
Twentieth Amendment changes inauguration day to January
The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution moved the beginning and ending of the terms of the president and vice president from March 4 to January 20. -
Hitler comes to power in Germany
After months of negotiations, the president of Germany, Paul von Hindenburg, appoints Hitler chancellor of Germany in a government seemingly dominated by conservatives on January 30, 1933. -
"Hundred Days"
FDR's First 100 Days were a model of presidential accomplishment. Between March and June 1933 Roosevelt successfully urged Congress to enact a series of laws creating a host of new federal programs. -
NRS, AAA, FDIC, TVA, FERA, CCC
The New Deal ushered in a variety of work relief programs. Most famous are the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). -
Bank holiday
At 1:00 a.m. on Monday, March 6, President Roosevelt issued Proclamation 2039 ordering the suspension of all banking transactions, effective immediately. -
Twenty-first Amendment repeals prohibition
The Twenty-first amendment to the Constitution of the United States that officially repealed federal prohibition, which had been enacted through the Eighteenth Amendment. -
Gold standard terminated
The United States Gold Reserve Act of 1934 required that all gold and gold certificates held by the Federal Reserve be surrendered and vested in the sole title of the United States Department of the Treasury. The Act outlawed most private possession of gold, forcing individuals to sell it to the Treasury, after which it was stored in United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox and other locations. -
SEC
The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 was created to provide governance of securities transactions on the secondary market and regulate the exchanges and broker-dealers in order to protect the investing public. -
Social Security Act
The Social Security Act of 1935 is one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history. Passed during the depth of the Great Depression, it was an omnibus act, creating a variety of programs to serve many groups of citizens. -
U.S. begins neutrality legislation
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Neutrality Act.The signing came at a time when newly installed fascist governments in Europe were beginning to beat the drums of war. -
CIO formed
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. -
FDR re-elected
In the United States presidential election of 1936, Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt won reelection, defeating Republican Alf Landon. -
Japan invades China
The Sino-Japanese War was a conflict that broke out when China began full-scale resistance to the expansion of Japanese influence in its territory. -
FDR attemps to pack Supreme Court
The series of anti-New Deal decisions by the Supreme Court angered President Roosevelt and prompted him to attempt to reform the federal court system itself. This included a so-called "court-packing" proposal that would have enabled FDR to appoint an additional six justices to the Supreme Court. -
United States Housing Authority
Created by the Housing Act of 1937, the United States Housing Authority (USHA) was the first permanent national housing agency in America. The USHA augmented the construction of federally funded, locally administered public housing projects. -
Fair labor Standards Act
The FLSA establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. -
Hitler takes Austria
On March 12, 1938, German troops march into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich. Hitler accompanied German troops into Austria, where enthusiastic crowds met them. Hitler appointed a new Nazi government, and on March 13 the Anschluss was proclaimed. -
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement was a settlement reached by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy that permitted German annexation of the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia. -
World War 2 begins
On September 1, 1939, the pre-dawn skies lit up over the Baltic Sea as the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on a Polish fortress on the Westerplatte Peninsula as assault troops hidden aboard the vessel stormed the shoreline. -
Fall of France
Germany launched an invasion of France and the Low Countries. On June 5, the Germans swung southwards and French resistance finally collapsed, although not without heavy fighting. -
Battle of Britain
German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. A significant turning point of World War II, the Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force. -
Roosevelt makes destroyers-for-bases deal with the British
The destroyers-for-bases agreement gave 50 US naval destroyers to Britain in exchange for the use of naval and air bases in eight British possessions: on the Avalon Peninsula, the coast of Newfoundland and on the Great Bay of Bermuda. -
First peacetime draft
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Service and Training Act, which required all male citizens between the ages of 26 and 35 to register for the military draft, beginning on October 16. -
Lend-Lease
The Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. -
Hitler attacks USSR
Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles. Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in World War II, for its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war against a coalition possessing immensely superior resources. -
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a joint declaration released by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill following a meeting of the two heads of state in Newfoundland. The Atlantic Charter provided a broad statement of U.S. and British war aims. -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory. The bombing killed more than 2,300 Americans. -
U.S. interns Japanese
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 ordering all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast. This resulted in the relocation of approximately 120,000 people, many of whom were American citizens, to one of 10 internment camps located across the country. -
U.S. halts Japanese at Coral Sea and Midway
The Battle of Coral Sea was a major naval battle in the Pacific. The battle was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other. The Battle of Midway was a turning point in the Pacific War. The victory at Midway allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. -
Unconditional surrender demanded
The most notable developments at the Casablanca Conference were the finalization of Allied strategic plans against the Axis powers in 1943, and the promulgation of the policy of “unconditional surrender.” -
Russia wins at Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. -
Italy invaded
The British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery begins the Allied invasion of the Italian peninsula, crossing the Strait of Messina from Sicily and landing at Calabria. -
France invaded
Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the go-ahead for the largest amphibious military operation in history: Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, the Allied invasion of northern France. -
Philippines liberated
The Liberation of the Philippines was the American and Filipino campaign to defeat and expel the Imperial Japanese forces occupying the Philippines. -
Bombing of Japan begins
On this day in 1944, during the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, the Japanese deploy kamikaze (“divine wind”) suicide bombers against American warships for the first time. It will prove costly–to both sides. -
Yalta
The February 1945 Yalta Conference was the second wartime meeting of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the conference, the three leaders agreed to demand Germany’s unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world. -
FDR dies
On a clear spring day at his Warm Springs, Georgia, retreat, Roosevelt sat in the living room while artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff painted his portrait. FDR suddenly complained of a terrific pain in the back of my head and collapsed unconscious. By 3:30PM the president had been pronouned dead. He had suffered from a massive cerebral hemmorhage. -
Germany surrenders
German High Command, General Alfred Jodl, signed the unconditional surrender of all German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northwestern France. -
Atom Bombs
An American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. -
End of WW2
Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. -
"Iron Curtain" speech
On March 5, 1946, at the request of Westminster College in the small Missouri town of Fulton, Churchill gave his now famous "Iron Curtain" speech to a crowd of 40,000. -
Cold War begins
The Cold War was the geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle between two world superpowers, the USA and the USSR, that started in 1947 at the end of the Second World War. -
Containment
The Truman Doctrine was the first in a series of containment moves by the United States, followed by economic restoration of Western Europe through the Marshall Plan and military containment by the creation of NATO in 1949. -
Taft-Hartlty
The Taft–Hartley Act is a United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions. -
Berlin Airlift
Russians closed all highways, railroads and canals from western-occupied Germany into western-occupied Berlin. Instead of retreating from West Berlin the U.S. and its allies decided to supply their sectors of the city from the air. This effort, known as the “Berlin Airlift,” lasted for more than a year and carried more than 2.3 million tons of cargo into West Berlin. -
Marshall plan
The Marshall Plan was the American initiative to aid Europe and Asia, in which the United States gave $13 billion in economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II. -
Military integrated
Executive Order 9981 was an executive order issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished racial discrimination in the United States Armed Forces and eventually led to the end of segregation in the services. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an alliance of countries from North America and Europe committed to fulfilling the goals of the North Atlantic Treaty signed on 4 April 1949. -
Russia explodes the bomb
At a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name “First Lightning.” In order to measure the effects of the blast, the Soviet scientists constructed buildings, bridges, and other civilian structures in the vicinity of the bomb. They also placed animals in cages nearby so that they could test the effects of nuclear radiation on human-like mammals. -
Communists control China
The Communist Party of China was formed in 1921. It was under Mao Zedong's control in 1927. Eventually, Mao led a revolution, and the communist party obtained control in 1947. They followed the example of the soviet model of development through heavy industry with surpluses extracted from peasants. -
Joseph McCarthy
McCarthy was a politician who served as a United States senator in Wisconsin and began in the rise of "McCarthyism." He convince many Americans that their government was packed with traitors and spies. -
Korean War
The war strengthemed the bond between Great Britain and the United States. The United States got involved to appear stronger agaist communism. -
Twenty-second Amendment limits the President to two terms
The Twenty-second Amendment of the United States Constitution sets a term limit for election and overall time of service to the office of President of the United States. -
Dwight Eisenhower elected president
The United States presidential election of 1952 was the 42nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1952. Republican Dwight Eisenhower was the landslide winner, ending a string of Democratic wins that stretched back to 1932 -
Brown v. Board of Education, Supreme Court strikes down "separate but equal."
Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. -
Vietnam divided
The accords established the 17th parallel as a temporary demarcation line separating the military forces. -
Montgomery bus boycott
Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. The boycott of public buses by blacks in Montgomery began on the day of Parks' court hearing and lasted 381 days. -
Emergence of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. organized the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, which began a chain reaction of similar boycotts throughout the South. -
Little rock Crisis
The Little Rock Crisis was when the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
Eisenhower Doctrine
The Eisenhower Doctrine was a U.S. foreign-policy pronouncement by President Dwight D. Eisenhower promising military or economic aid to any Middle Eastern country needing help in resisting communist aggression. -
Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was introduced in Eisenhower’s presidency and was the act that kick-started thecivil rights legislative programme that was to include the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. -
Sputnik
History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I, the world's first artificial earth satellite. -
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States Federal Government responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. -
First U.S. satellite and ICBM
The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States, and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. -
John F. Kennedy elected President
In 1960, John F. Kennedy became the youngest man ever to be elected president of the United States, narrowly beating Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. He was also the first Catholic to become president. Nixon took every opportunity to characterize Kennedy as too young and inexperienced to handle the responsibilities of America’s Cold War diplomacy. -
Bay og Pigs
The CIA launched what its leaders believed would be the definitive strike, a full-scale invasion of Cuba by 1,400 American-trained Cubans who had fled their homes when Castro took over. However, the invasion did not go well, the invaders were badly outnumbered by Castro’s troops, and they surrendered after less than 24 hours of fighting. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. -
Feminine Mystique
The Feminine Mystique is a 1963 book by Betty Friedan which is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. -
JFK assassinated
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. -
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool, England. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they became widely regarded as the foremost and most influential act of the rock era. -
Twenty-fourth amendment outlaws the poll tax
The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. -
Gulf of Tonkin
The Gulf of Tonkin incident, also known as the USS Maddox incident, involved what were originally claimed to be two separate confrontations involving North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. -
Malcom X assassinated
On February 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City. -
N.O.W. formed
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization founded in 1966. -
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies aimed at achieving self-determination for people of African descent. -
Detroit Riot
In the early morning hours of July 23, 1967, one of the worst riots in U.S. history breaks out on 12th Street in the heart of Detroit’s predominantly African-American inner city. 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops, 43 people were dead, 342 injured, and nearly 1,400 buildings had been burned. -
Richard Nixon elected President
Winning one of the closest elections in U.S. history, Republican challenger Richard Nixon defeated Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Nixon beat Humphrey by less than 500,000 votes. -
Massacre at Kent State
On April 30, 1970, Nixon appeared on national television to announce the invasion of Cambodia by the U.S. and the need to draft 150,000 more soldiers for an expansion of the Vietnam War effort. This provoked massive protests on campuses throughout the country. At Kent State University in Ohio, protesters launched a demonstration that included setting fire to the ROTC building. During an altercation on May 4, twenty-eight guardsmen opened fire on a crowd, killing four students and wounding nine. -
Watergate
Early in the morning of June 17, 1972, several burglars were arrested inside the office of the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. They had been caught while attempting to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. -
Watergate Tapes
The Nixon White House tapes are audio recordings of the communications of U.S. President Richard Nixon and various Nixon administration officials and White House staff, ordered by the President for personal records. -
Equal Rights Amendment dies
The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced into every session of Congress between 1923 and 1972, when it was passed and sent to the states for ratification. The seven-year time limit in the ERA's proposing clause was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at the deadline, the ERA had been ratified by 35 states, leaving it three states short of the 38 required for ratification. -
Oliver North, John Poindexter, and other Iran-contra figures indicted
Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North, Rear Adm. John M. Poindexter and two other key participants in the Iran-contra affair were indicted today on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States by illegally providing the Nicaraguan rebels with profits from the sale of American weapons to Iran. -
Bill Clinton elected President
Democrat Bill Clinton defeated incumbent Republican Pres. George Bush in the 1992 presidential election. Clinton won a plurality in the popular vote, and a wide Electoral College margin. -
World Trade Center bombed
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, when a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg joins the Supreme Court
Ginsburg was appointed by President Carter to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1980 and was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Clinton in 1993. -
Stephen G. Breyer joins the Supreme Court
Stephen Breyer was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton and sworn in on August 3, 1994. -
Bill Clinton re-elected President
The 1996 U.S. Presidential Election saw Bill Clinton easily re-elected over the Republican Party candidate, Bob Dole. -
Monica Lewinsky scandal breaks out
The Lewinsky scandal was an American political sex scandal in 1998, referring to a sexual relationship between 49-year-old President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House employee, Monica Lewinsky. -
Operation Desert Thunder
Operation Desert Thunder was a response to threats by Iraq's president Saddam Hussein to shoot down U-2 spy planes, and violate the no-fly zone set up over his country. -
House Judiciary Committee sends 4 articles of Impeachment
Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America, against William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States of America. -
Bill Clinton is impeached by United Stares House of Representatives
President Bill Clinton was impeached on two charges: perjury and obstruction of justice. Mr. Clinton lied under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, but that was not the grounds for impeachment. -
Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate
On February 12, 1999, the five-week impeachment trial of Bill Clinton comes to an end, with the Senate voting to acquit the president on both articles of impeachment: perjury and obstruction of justice. -
George W. Bush elected President of the United States
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States. -
9/11, war on terror
The September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States forced President George W. Bush to reappraise his foreign policy. -
Barrack Obama elected president
President Barack Obama was elected the first African-American president of the United States on November 5, 2008, transcending centuries of inequality in America.
