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Declaration of Independence
The fundamental document establishing the United States as a nation. The declaration was ordered and approved by the Continental Congress and written largely by Thomas Jefferson. -
Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman". Held in Seneca Falls, New York, it spanned two days over July 19–20, 1848. -
13th Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865. -
14th Amendment
An amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1868. It was primarily concerned with details of reintegrating the southern states after the Civil War and defining some of the rights of recently freed slaves. -
15th Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". Formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870, passed by Congress the year before. -
Colorado becomes first state to grant women the right to vote
A referendum on women's suffrage was held in the U.S. state of Colorado on November 7, 1893 to ratify a proposed constitutional amendment, allowing women the right to vote. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
The Supreme Court case, since overturned by Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which upheld the constitutionality of “separate, but equal facilities” based on race. -
NAACP is Founded
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. -
19th Amendment
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. -
Executive Order 10450
President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450 on April 27, 1953. Effective May 27, 1953, it revoked President Truman's 1947 Executive Order 9835 and dismantled its Loyalty Review Board program. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. -
One, Inc. v. Olesen
One, Inc. v. Olesen 355 U.S. 371 (January 13, 1958) is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision for LGBT rights in the United States. ONE, Inc., a spinoff of the Mattachine Society, published the early pro-gay "ONE: The Homosexual Magazine" beginning in 1953. -
Illinois becomes first state to repeal its sodomy laws
Sodomy laws in the United States, which outlawed a variety of sexual acts, were historically universal. While they often targeted sexual acts between persons of the same sex, many statutes employed definitions broad enough to outlaw certain sexual acts between persons of different sexes as well, sometimes even acts between married persons. -
24th Amendment:
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. Ratified in 1964. -
Civil Rights Act 1964
A federal law that authorized federal action against segregation in public accommodations, public facilities, and employment. -
Voting Rights Act 1965
A law passed at the time of the civil rights movement. It eliminated various devices, such as literacy tests, that had traditionally been used to restrict voting by black people. -
Stonewall Inn Riots
Stonewall Riot definition. A disturbance that grew out of a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a popular hang-out for gays in Manhattan 's Greenwich Village in 1969. Such raids long had been routine, but this one provoked a riot as the crowd fought back. -
Title IX
A comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. -
APA Removes Homosexuality as a mental disorder
Psychology was one of the first disciplines to study homosexuality as a discrete phenomenon. Prior to and throughout most of the 20th century, common standard psychology viewed homosexuality in terms of pathological models as a mental illness. -
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
Official United States policy on service by gays and lesbians in the military instituted by the Clinton Administration in February 28, 1994, when Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 issued on December 21, 1993, lasting until September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. -
Defense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) (Pub.L. 104–199, 110 Stat. 2419, enacted September 21, 1996, 1 U.S.C. § 7 and 28 U.S.C. § 1738C) is a United States federal law that allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states. -
Massachusetts legalizes gay marriage
Massachusetts became the sixth jurisdiction in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. -
Don't ask, don't tell
"Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on service by gays and lesbians in the military instituted by the Clinton Administration in February 28, 1994, when Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 issued on December 21, 1993, took effect,[1] lasting until September 20, 2011.
