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Indian Removal Act
This forced tribes in the south-east to move beyond the Missippi river to Indian territory which is present-day Oklahoma. -
Lincoln was assasinated
John Wilkes Booth assasinated President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. Andrew Johnson then became President. -
Thirteenth Amendment ratified
The Thirteenth Amendment officially ended slavery. Southerners who accepted this Amendment and swore alliance to the U.S. got to have their political power restored. Johnson then promised to uphold state's rights. -
Fourteenth Amendment ratified
The Fourteenth Amendment gave citizenship and rights to every person born in the U.S. including African Americans. White southerners also could not vote. Many southern states started electing black officers. -
United States purchases Alaska
U.S.A agreed to purchase Alaska on March 30, 1867. But the United States officially issued a check for 7.2 million dollars to buy Alaska, on August 1, 1868. Thomas Nast was ridiculed for this purchase, but it turned out to be a smart buy, with Alaska having many natural resources. -
Completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S.
The golden spike was the ceremonial final spike to join the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads. -
Fifteenth Amendment ratified
This Amendment guaranteed no male citizen would be denied the right to vote. Freedmen started to rebuild their lives because of the new amendments. -
Battle of Little Bighorn
General George Custer and his forces were defeated by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. It took place in the valley of the Little Bighorn River in Montana. All of the Americans died. -
Chinese Exclusion Act approved
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a law restricting immigration into the United States. In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. -
Statue of Liberty opens
The Statue of Liberty was finished in September 1875. It was a gift from the French people commemorating the alliance of France and the United States during the American Revolution. Through the years, it has symbolized the freedom and the democracy of the United States. -
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act authorized the President of the United States to survey American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians. -
Jacob Riis publishes "How the Other Half Lives"
"How the Other Half Lives" exposed the horrible living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s to upper and middle class. It served as a basis for future muckraking journalism. -
Ellis Island opens
Ellis Island, New York Bay, was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station for over sixty years from 1892 until 1954. -
Ida B. Wells creates newspaper about lynching
Ida B. Wells was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, feminist, Georgist, and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The newspaper she created impacted the world by exposing the horrors of lynching. -
The Grandfather Clause is created
The Grandfather Clause were passed by white-dominated state legislatures from 1890 to 1908 in most of the Southern States to restrict voter rolls and effectively prevent blacks, Mexican Americans, and poor whites from voting. -
Congress declares war on Spain
The Battleship Maine in Havana harbor sunk on February 15, 1898. Americans thought it was the Spanish and President McKinley asked congress to declare war on Spain. -
Teller Amendment
The Teller Amendment was an amendment to a joint resolution of the United States Congress, and placed a condition on the United States military's presence in Cuba. It was in reply to President William McKinley's War Message. -
President McKinley Assassinated
Leon Czolgosz shot and killed President McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York. -
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Burns Down
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory had a fire in 1911. It was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of New York, and one of the deadliest in US history. The workers were trapped inside because the owners had locked the fire escape doors. The owners were found not guilty when they went to court. -
16th Amendment ratified
This Amendment reserves the U.S. government the right to tax income. -
17th Amendment ratified
The 17th Amendment established popular voting as the process under which senators are elected. -
Assasination of Franz Ferdinand
On this date, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip. This event is widely acknowledged to have sparked the outbreak of World War I. -
U.S. proclaims neutrality in the war
As WWI was spreading across Europe, President Woodrow Wilson declared that the United States would remain “impartial in thought as well as in action.” At the time, the majority of Americans approved of Wilson's policy. -
Christmas truce of 1914
The Christmas Truce was a series of widespread but unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of World War I around Christmas 1914. Men from both sides ventured into "no man's land" on Christmas Eve and Christmas to exchange season's greetings, presents, and to play games like soccer. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, while several meetings ended in carol-singing. After this event, some soldiers said even refused to fight against their new friends. -
The National Woman's Party begins to picket the White House
Beginning on January 10, 1917, the NWP members took part in an ongoing demonstration in front of the White House gates. The pickets were meant to expose the President in ignoring the suffrage cause, and to gain publicity. -
America officially joins WWI
On this day, the U.S. joined its allies (Britain, France, and Russia) to fight in WWI. Many Americans did not want the U.S. entering the war and wanted to remain neutral. -
Selective Service Act
This date represents the first day of the Selective Service Act's enactment. This act was what Wilson passed to ensure there would be enough soldiers in battle for WWI. It drafted young, healthy men to war. -
Treaty of Versailles set in motion
The Treaty of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties of WWI's end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. -
Terrible lynching of Will Brown
The Omaha race riot that occurred in Omaha, Nebraska on September 28–29, 1919, resulted in the lynching of Will Brown (a black worker), other killings, and a public rampage by thousands of white people who set the Douglas County Courthouse on fire. -
19th Amendment ratified
On this date, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, which granted American women the right to vote. It was a major victory for women that changed America forever. -
U.S. officials destroyed liquor at Brownsville customs house
When prohibition began, police were trying to get rid of as much alcohol as possible, which resulted in events like this. -
John Scopes fined $100
The "Monkey Trial” was the trial against John Thomas Scopes, a young high school teacher in Tennessee, who was accused of teaching evolution in his classroom. He was found guilty and fined $100. It was an extremely important case that changed the way a lot of people viewed evolution and creation. -
KKK parade along Pennsylvania Ave.
The KKK did a very racist march on this date. All of them were neatly arrayed in rows behind banners indicating their state of origin. All were dressed in full Ku Klux Klan regalia. -
The Stock Market Crash of 1929
The stock market crash of 1929 was a four-day collapse of stock prices that began on October 24, 1929. It was the worst decline in U.S. history. -
Important photograph released exposing America's economic fall
An evicted family with their belongings on the street are an example of those who were affected by the Great Depression. -
The Revenue Act of 1932
The Revenue Act of 1932 raised United States tax rates across the board. The rate on top incomes rose from 25 percent to 63 percent. The estate tax was doubled and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15 percent. -
Bonus army conflict
Bonus Army was the name for an assemblage of 17,000 U.S. World War I veterans, their families, and affiliated groups (a total of 43,000 people) who gathered in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1932 to demand cash-payment redemption of their service certificates. -
Severe dust storm
From 1930 to 1936, the Dust Bowl took place which was a series of dust storms and drought. This pareticuar massive dust storm swept South Dakota and caused major damage. -
Pearl Harbor bombing
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on this date. Japan bombed the U.S. -
D-Day
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe. This day is referred to as D-Day. -
VE Day
Victory in Europe Day was the public holiday celebrated on this day to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. -
Japan is warned to surrender
Over 100 U.S. planes flew over Japan and dropped 500-pound containers holding millions of leaflets that warned Japan of the necessity to surrender. They didn't surrender until after U.S. attacked. -
VJ Day
Victory over Japan Day is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, ending the war. -
Hawaii becomes the 50th state
Hawaii officially became the the fiftieth state on this date. It is one of the smallest states, and it's the only state made up entirely of islands. -
Yuri Gagarin launched into space
This event was extremely significant because there was a race between many countries, especially Russia and U.S.A, to be the first to send a man to space. Yuri Gargarin was a Russian man, and the first to be in space. -
Construction begins on the Berlin Wall
On this day, they began building the infamous Berlin Wall. People say it felt like it came together overnight. -
President Kennedy gets assassinated
John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on Friday, November 22, 1963 at 12:30 p.m. in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza. -
Gulf of Tonkin attack
On this date, the North Vietnamese boats attacked the USS Maddox while the destroyer was in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. -
Operation Rolling thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the name given to America's sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam. It was started in an effort to demoralise the North Vietnamese people and to undermine the capacity of the government in North Vietnam. -
Last of American troops leave South Vietnam
After the Paris Peace Aggreement, U.S. had to stop involvement in the war. When the soldiers left that day, many South Vietnamese people begged to go with them back to America. -
Hungary's border opened
On this date, Hungary opened its border with Austria, allowing East Germans to flee to the West. -
The Berlin Wall falls
The Wall symbolized the Cold War and the divide between the communists and democrats. Having the Wall fall was like a new beginning.
