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The Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord on 19 April 1775, the famous 'shot heard 'round the world', marked the start of the American War of Independence. American victory. The British marched into Lexington and Concord intending to suppress the possibility of rebellion by seizing weapons from the colonists. Instead, their actions sparked the first battle of the Revolutionary War. -
Benedict Arnold turns traitor
On September 21, 1780, Revolutionary War hero Benedict Arnold turned his back on his country in a secret meeting with a top British official.
Arnold was branded the most notorious traitor in American history. -
The Battle of Cowpens
The Battle of Cowpens was an engagement during the American Revolutionary War fought on January 17, 1781 near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina, between U.S. forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan and British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, as part of the campaign in the Carolinas.
The historical significance of the Battle of Cowpens lies in the fact that it helped turn the tide of the war in the southern theater and lead the United States to victory over the British. -
The USS Constitution defeats the HMS Guerriere
On August 19, 1812, USS Constitution met and defeated HMS Guerriere, a 38-gun British frigate under the command of Captain James Richard Dacres.
While relatively inconsequential in strategic terms for the War of 1812, the stunning victory provided a much needed morale boost for the American public. -
The Battle of Baltimore
The Battle of Baltimore was a sea/land battle fought between British invaders and American defenders in the War of 1812. American forces repulsed sea and land invasions off the busy port city of Baltimore, Maryland, and killed the commander of the invading British forces. This victor, together with the defeat of a British naval squadron on Lake Champlain showed the British government that the United States could hold out against British attacks. -
The Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815 between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, in Louisiana.
The American victory in the Gulf region forced the British to recognize United States claims to Louisiana and West Florida and to ratify the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war. The Battle of New Orleans also marked the state's political incorporation into the Union. -
The Election of Andrew Jackson
The 1828 United States presidential election was the 11th quadrennial presidential election. It featured a repetition of the 1824 election, as President John Quincy Adams of the National Republican Party faced Andrew Jackson of the Democratic Party. Both parties were new organizations, and this was the first presidential election their nominees contested.
This election saw the second rematch in presidential history, something that would not occur again until 1840. -
The Battle of the Alamo
On March 6, 1836, after 13 days of intermittent fighting, the Battle of the Alamo comes to a gruesome end, capping off a pivotal moment in the Texas Revolution. Mexican forces were victorious in recapturing the fort, and nearly all of the roughly 200 Texan defenders—including frontiersman Davy Crockett—died.
This was an important event in history because it rallied the rest of Texas to fight against the Mexican army eventually leading to a victory over Santa Ana at the Battle of San Jacinto. -
Mexico loses California, New Mexico, and Arizona
This treaty, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war between the United States and Mexico. By its terms, Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory, including the present-day states California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo extended the boundaries of the United States west to the Pacific Ocean. -
Abraham Lincoln Elected President
Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but handily defeated the three other candidates: Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, a U.S. senator for Illinois.
This marked the first time ever that a Republican was elected president. -
South Carolina secedes from the United States
South Carolina became the first state to secede from the federal Union on December 20, 1860. The victory of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election triggered cries for disunion across the slaveholding South.
The secession of South Carolina precipitated the outbreak of the American Civil War in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861. -
The First Battle of Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of First Manassas, was the first major battle of the American Civil War. The battle was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, just north of the city of Manassas and about thirty miles west-southwest of Washington, D.C.
The fierce fight there forced both the North and South to face the sobering reality that the war would be long and bloody. -
The Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War.
The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war's turning point. -
The Treaty at Appomattox Court House
Trapped by the Federals near Appomattox Court House, Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union general Ulysses S. Grant, precipitating the capitulation of other Confederate forces and leading to the end of the bloodiest conflict in American history.
The site is historically significant for its association with the final battle of the Civil War and Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender to Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865. -
The sinking of the USS Maine
At 9:40pm on February 15, 1898, the battleship U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, killing 268 men and shocking the American populace. Of the two-thirds of the crew who perished, only 200 bodies were recovered and 76 identified.
While historians will never know exactly what happened the night the Maine went down, it is clear that the incident was a significant force that propelled the United States into the Spanish-American War. -
The Adoption of the Star Spangled Banner as the National Anthem
President Woodrow Wilson signed an Executive Order to make it our national anthem. In 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a Public Law that made it the official national anthem.
During the 19th century, “The Star-Spangled Banner” became one of the nation's best-loved patriotic songs. It gained special significance during the Civil War, a time when many Americans turned to music to express their feelings for the flag and the ideals and values it represented. -
Battle of the Philippines
Battle of the Philippine Sea, (June 19–20, 1944), naval battle of World War II between the Japanese Combined Fleet and the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Known as “the greatest carrier battle of the war,” it accompanied the U.S. landing on Saipan and ended in a complete U.S. victory.
It was a major naval battle of World War II that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. -
The Winter at Valley Forge
The particularly severe winter of 1777-1778 proved to be a great trial for the American army, and of the 11,000 soldiers stationed at Valley Forge, hundreds died from disease. However, the suffering troops were held together by loyalty to the Patriot cause and to General Washington, who stayed with his men.
The experiences at Valley Forge reshaped it into a more unified force capable of defeating the British and winning American independence during the remaining five years of the war.