DNL Timeline : American History periodization

  • Period: 1 CE to 500

    The Ancient World

  • Period: 500 to 1450

    The Medieval Era

  • Period: 1450 to

    The Early Modern World

  • Jan 1, 1492

    End of The Pre-Colonial Era

  • Period: 1492 to

    The Discovery Era

  • Period: to

    The Colonial Era

  • French and Indian War

    Final conflict in the ongoing struggle between the British and French for control of eastern North America. The British win a decisive victory over the French on the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec.
  • Period: to

    The Revolutionary and Republican Era

  • American Revolution

    War of independence fought between Great Britain and the 13 British colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America. Battles of Lexington and Concord, Mass., between the British Army and colonial minutemen, mark the beginning of the war.
  • Continental Congress

    Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.
  • Great Britain formally acknowledges American independenc

    Great Britain formally acknowledges American independence in the Treaty of Paris, which officially brings the war to a close.
  • Period: to

    The Modern World

  • George Washington

    George Washington is unanimously elected president of the United States in a vote by state electors.
  • First ten amendments to the Constitution

    First ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, are ratified.
  • Thomas Jefferson

    Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated as the third president in Washington, DC.
  • Period: to

    The Antebellum period

  • Spain agrees to cede Florida to the United States

    Spain agrees to cede Florida to the United States
  • Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation

    Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation, the first U.S. constitution.
  • U.S. annexes Texas

    U.S. annexes Texas by joint resolution of Congress
  • Period: to

    Women's rights convention

    Women's rights convention is held at Seneca Falls, N.Y.
  • Abraham Lincoln

    Abraham Lincoln is elected president.
  • Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana

    Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana secede.
  • Period: to

    Civil War

    Conflict between the North (the Union) and the South (the Confederacy) over the expansion of slavery into western states.
  • Period: to

    The Civil War Era

  • Confederate States of America is established.

    Confederate States of America is established.
  • Dead of Lincoln

    Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Washington, DC, and is succeeded by his vice president, Andrew Johnson.
  • Treaty concluded March 30

    U.S. acquires Alaska from Russia for the sum of $7.2 million.
  • Period: to

    The Gilded Age

  • Period: to

    The Progressive and World Wars Era

  • Theodor Roosevelt

    Theodor Roosevelt is President.
  • Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified,

    Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor. It is later repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933.
    Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, granting women the right to vote.
  • U.S. Declares war on Japan.

    Japan attacks Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines. U.S. Declares war on Japan.
  • Period: to

    U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

    U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
  • Period: to

    The Cold War Era

  • John F. Kennedy

    John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th president.
    A mixed-race group of volunteers sponsored by the Committee on Racial Equality—the so-called Freedom Riders—travel on buses through the South in order to protest racially segregated interstate bus facilities.
  • Dead of Kennedy

    President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Tex. He is succeeded in office by his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson.
  • Dead of Martin Luther King Jr.

    Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
  • Richard Nixon

    Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president.
  • Ronald Reagan

    Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th president.
    Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman Supreme Court justice.
  • George H. W. Bush

    George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as the 41st president.
  • Period: to

    America today

  • Bill Clinton

    Bill Clinton is inaugurated as the 42nd president.
  • War waged by the U.S.

    War waged by the U.S. and Britain against Iraq begins.
  • Donald Trump

    Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president.