Founding fathers

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    Charles Lindberg completes solo flight across the Atlantic

    Charles Lindberg completes solo flight across the Atlantic
    On May 20, 1927, Lindbergh took flight aboard the Spirit of St. Louis, a highly modified Ryan M-2 aircraft, in an attempt to become the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic. ... Louis touched down at the Le Bourget airfield in Paris, after flying a total distance of 3,610 miles in 33.5 hours.
  • Massacre at Mystic

    Massacre at Mystic
    The Mystic massacre – also known as the Pequot massacre and the Battle of Mystic Fort – took place on May 26, 1637 during the Pequot War, when Connecticut colonists under Captain John Mason and their Narragansett and Mohegan allies set fire to the Pequot Fort near the Mystic River.
  • The Scalp Act

    The Scalp Act
    On April 8, 1756, Governor Robert Morris enacted the Scalp Act. Anyone who brought in a male scalp above age of 12 would be given 150 pieces of eight, ($150), for females above age of 12 or males under the age of 12, they would be paid $130. The act turned all the tribes against the Pennsylvania legislature.
  • The Boston Tea Party

    The Boston Tea Party
    The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773.
  • The Battles of Lexington and Concord

    The Battles of Lexington and Concord
    The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775 in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge.
  • The Battles of Lexington and Concord

    The Battles of Lexington and Concord
    The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775 in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy, and Cambridge.
  • The Declaration of Independence is Signed

    The Declaration of Independence is Signed
    On August 2, 1776, Congress members signed the declaration. Not every man who had been present on July 4 signed the declaration on August 2. Two important officials passed up the chance to sign and others were added later. The first and largest signature was that of the president of the Congress, John Hancock.
  • The Winter at Valley Forge

    The Winter at Valley Forge
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    The six-month encampment of General George Washington's Continental Army at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-1778 was a major turning point in the American Revolutionary War. ... The defeats had led some members of the Continental Congress to want to replace Washington, believing he was incompetent
  • The Winter at Valley Forge

    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 Constitution is Ratified

    The Constitution is Ratified
    On June 21, 1788, the Constitution became the official framework of the government of the United States of America when New Hampshire became the ninth of 13 states to ratify it. The journey to ratification, however, was a long and arduous process.
  • The Death of George Washington

    The Death of George Washington
    On the evening of December 14, 1799, at Mount Vernon, George Washington passed away of a throat infection. He was buried four days later in the family vault at Mount Vernon.
  • Benedict Arnold turns traitor

    Benedict Arnold turns traitor
    In 1779, he entered into secret negotiations with the British, agreeing to turn over the U.S. post at West Point in return for money and a command in the British army. The plot was discovered, but Arnold escaped to British lines. His name has since become synonymous with the word “traitor.”
  • The Battle of Cowpens

    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.
  • Article of Confederation are Ratified

    Article of Confederation are Ratified
    May 5, 1779 - Delaware delegates signed the ratification of the Articles of Confederation. March 1, 1781 - Maryland delegates signed the ratification of the Articles of Confederation. The Articles were finally ratified by all thirteen states.
  • The Battle of Yorktown

    The Battle of Yorktown
    Siege of Yorktown, (September 28–October 19, 1781), joint Franco-American land and sea campaign that entrapped a major British army on a peninsula at Yorktown, Virginia, and forced its surrender. The siege virtually ended military operations in the American Revolution.
  • The 3/5ths Compromise

    The 3/5ths Compromise
    WHAT WAS THE THREE-FIFTHS COMPROMISE? It was part of a provision of the original Constitution that dealt with how to allot seats in the House of Representatives and dole out taxes based on population. State populations would be determined by “the whole Number of free Persons” and “three fifths of all other Persons.”
  • Presidential Inauguration of George Washington

    Presidential Inauguration of George Washington
    The first inauguration of George Washington as the first president of the United States was held on Thursday, April 30, 1789 on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City, New York. The inauguration was held nearly two months after the beginning of the first four-year term of George Washington as President.
  • Washington’s Farewell Address

    Washington’s Farewell Address
    Washington's Farewell Address is a letter written by American President George Washington as a valedictory to "friends and the fellow-citizens" after 20 years of public service to the United States. He wrote it near the end of his second term of presidency before retiring to his home at Mount Vernon in Virginia.
  • Election Day, 1800

    Election Day, 1800
    It was held from October 31 to December 3, 1800. In what is sometimes referred to as the "Revolution of 1800", Vice President Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party defeated incumbent President John Adams of the Federalist Party.
  • Marbury vs. Madison

    Marbury vs. Madison
    Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in the United States, meaning that American courts have the power to strike down laws and statutes that they find to violate the Constitution of the United States.
  • Slave Trade Ends in the United States

    Slave Trade Ends in the United States
    The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 is a United States federal law that provided that no new slaves were permitted to be imported into the United States. It took effect on January 1, 1808, the earliest date permitted by the United States Constitution.
  • Battle of Tippecanoe

    Battle of Tippecanoe
    attle of Tippecanoe, (November 7, 1811), victory of a seasoned U.S. expeditionary force under Major General William Henry Harrison over Shawnee Indians led by Tecumseh's brother Laulewasikau (Tenskwatawa), known as the Prophet. ... The U.S. victory broke Tecumseh's power and ended the threat of an Indian confederation.
  • The USS Constitution defeats the HMS Guerriere

    The USS Constitution defeats the HMS Guerriere
    USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere was a battle between the two ships during the War of 1812, approximately 400 miles southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It took place shortly after war had broken out, exactly one month after the first engagement between British and American forces.
  • The Battle of Baltimore

    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.
  • The Battle of New Orleans

    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, roughly 5 miles southeast of the French Quarter of New Orleans, in the current suburb of Chalmette, Louisiana.
  • The Missouri Compromise

    The Missouri Compromise
    measure worked out between the North and the South and passed by the U.S. Congress that allowed for admission of Missouri as a slave state, Maine as a free state, and made free soil all western territories north of Missouri's southern border.
  • The Election of Andrew Jackson

    The Election of Andrew Jackson
    It was held from Friday, October 31 to Tuesday, December 2, 1828. It featured a rematch of the 1824 election, as President John Quincy Adams of the National Republican Party faced Andrew Jackson of the Democratic Party. ... Jackson's victory over Adams marked the start of Democratic dominance in federal politics.
  • Trail of tears

    Trail of tears
    The Trail of Tears was part of a series of forced displacements of approximately 60,000 Native Americans between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government known as the Indian removal.
  • Indian Removal Act

    Indian Removal Act
    The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern Native American tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for white settlement of their ancestral lands.
  • Nat Turner Rebellion

    Nat Turner Rebellion
    Nat Turner's Rebellion was a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, led by Nat Turner. The rebels killed between 55 and 65 people, at least 51 of whom were white.
  • The Battle of the Alamo

    The Battle of the Alamo
    The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar, killing most of the Texians and Tejanos inside.
  • Mexico loses California, New Mexico, and Arizona

    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 parts of present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah, to the United States.
  • The Fugitive Slave act

    The Fugitive Slave act
    Passed on September 18, 1850 by Congress, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.
  • Dred Scott Decision

    Dred Scott Decision
    ed Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393, was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that the United States Constitution was not meant to include American citizenship for people of African descent, regardless of whether they were enslaved or free; and so the rights and privileges that the Constitution confers upon American citizens could not apply to them.
  • The Dead Rabbits Riot

    The Dead Rabbits Riot
    The Dead Rabbits riot was a two-day civil disturbance in New York City evolving from what was originally a small-scale street fight between members of the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys into a citywide gang war.
  • Abraham Lincoln Elected President

    Abraham Lincoln Elected President
    In a four-way contest, the Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, absent from the ballot in ten slave states, won a national popular plurality, a popular majority in the North where states already had abolished slavery, and a national electoral majority comprising only Northern electoral votes.
  • South Carolina secedes from the United States

    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
    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 30 miles west-southwest of Washington, D.C.
  • emancipation proclamation

    emancipation proclamation
    The Emancipation Proclamation, or Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, during the Civil War.
  • The Battle of Gettysburg

    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.
  • 13th Amendment

    13th Amendment
    The 13th Amendment forever abolished slavery as an institution in all U.S. states and territories. In addition to banning slavery, the amendment outlawed the practice of involuntary servitude and peonage. Involuntary servitude or peonage occurs when a person is coerced to work in order to pay off debts.
  • The Treaty at Appomattox Courthouse

    The Treaty at Appomattox Courthouse
    The heart of the terms was that Confederates would be paroled after surrendering their weapons and other military property. If surrendered soldiers did not take up arms again, the United States government would not prosecute them. Grant also allowed Confederate officers to keep their mounts and side arms.
  • The Klu Klux Klan is Established

    The Klu Klux Klan is Established
    On this day in 1865, A group including many former Confederate veterans had the first meeting for the secret society that they called the Klu Klux Klan. the society's name is supposedly from the Greek word “kyklos,” meaning circle.
  • The 14th Amendment

    The 14th Amendment
    The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including former enslaved people—and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” One of three amendments passed during the Reconstruction era to abolish slavery and establish civil and legal rights for Black Americans, it would become the basis for many landmark Supreme Court decisions over the years.
  • 15th Amendment

    15th Amendment
    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.
  • John D. Rockefeller creates standard oil

    John D. Rockefeller creates standard oil
    In 1870, he established Standard Oil, which by the early 1880s controlled some 90 percent of U.S. refineries and pipelines. Critics accused Rockefeller of engaging in unethical practices, such as predatory pricing and colluding with railroads to eliminate his competitors in order to gain a monopoly in the industry.
  • Alexander Graham Bell Patents the Telephone

    Alexander Graham Bell Patents the Telephone
    On March 7, 1876, 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary new invention: the telephone. The Scottish-born Bell worked in London with his father, Melville Bell, who developed Visible Speech, a written system used to teach speaking to the deaf.
  • Battle of Little Bighorn

    Battle of Little Bighorn
    The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of U.S. forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876.
  • The Great Oklahoma Land Race

    The Great Oklahoma Land Race
    The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the first land run into the Unassigned Lands of former Indian Territory, which had earlier been assigned to the Creek and Seminole peoples. An estimated 50,000 people were lined up at the start, seeking to gain a piece of the available two million acres.
  • Battle of Wounded Knee

    Battle of Wounded Knee
    Wounded Knee Massacre, (December 29, 1890), the slaughter of approximately 150–300 Lakota Indians by United States Army troops in the area of Wounded Knee Creek in southwestern South Dakota. The massacre was the climax of the U.S. Army's late 19th-century efforts to repress the Plains Indians.
  • Ellis Island Opens to Process Immigrants

    Ellis Island Opens to Process Immigrants
    The first Ellis Island Immigration Station officially opens on January 1, 1892, as three large ships wait to land. Seven hundred immigrants passed through Ellis Island that day, and nearly 450,000 followed over the course of that first year.
  • Plessy vs. Ferguson

    Plessy vs. Ferguson
    Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. ... As a result, restrictive Jim Crow legislation and separate public accommodations based on race became commonplace.
  • The sinking of the USS Maine

    The sinking of the USS Maine
    On February 15, 1898, an explosion of unknown origin sank the battleship U.S.S. Maine in the Havana, Cuba harbor, killing 266 of the 354 crew members. The sinking of the Maine incited United States' passions against Spain, eventually leading to a naval blockade of Cuba and a declaration of war.
  • The Wizard of Oz (book) is published

    The Wizard of Oz (book) is published
    The Wizard of Oz was a 1902 musical extravaganza based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
  • J.P. Morgan Founds U.S. Steel

    J.P. Morgan Founds U.S. Steel
    J. P. Morgan formed U.S. Steel on March 2, 1901 (incorporated on February 25) by financing the merger of Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel Company with Elbert H. Gary's Federal Steel Company and William Henry "Judge" Moore's National Steel Company for $492 million ($15.31 billion today).
  • Teddy Roosevelt becomes president of the USA

    Teddy Roosevelt becomes president of the USA
    Roosevelt took office as vice president in 1901 and assumed the presidency at age 42 after McKinley was assassinated the following September. He remains the youngest person to become President of the United States.
  • Ford Moter Company is Founded

    Ford Moter Company is Founded
    Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand, and luxury cars under its Lincoln luxury brand.
  • Ida Tarbell Publishes Her Article About Standard Oil

    Ida Tarbell Publishes Her Article About Standard Oil
    Instantly popular with readers, "The History of the Standard Oil Company" grew to be a 19-part series, published between November 1902 and October 1904. Tarbell wrote a detailed exposé of Rockefeller's unethical tactics, sympathetically portraying the plight of Pennsylvania's independent oil workers.
  • The 16th Amendment is Passed

    The 16th Amendment is Passed
    Passed by Congress on July 2, 1909, and ratified February 3, 1913, the 16th amendment established Congress's right to impose a Federal income tax. ... At first, Congress placed a flat 3-percent tax on all incomes over $800 and later modified this principle to include a graduated tax.
  • Angel Island opens to process Immigrants

    Angel Island opens to process Immigrants
    In January 1910, over the late objections of Chinese community leaders, this hastily built immigration station was opened for the Chinese community from 80 countries. Angel island closed in the 1940s due to a fire.
  • Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder

    Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder
    Despite worldwide demonstrations in support of their innocence, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for murder. On April 15, 1920, a paymaster for a shoe company in South Braintree, Massachusetts, was shot and killed along with his guard.
  • Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder

    Sacco and Vanzetti arrested for armed robbery and murder
    Despite worldwide demonstrations in support of their innocence, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for murder. On April 15, 1920, a paymaster for a shoe company in South Braintree, Massachusetts, was shot and killed along with his guard.
  • KDKA goes on the air from Pittsburgh

    KDKA goes on the air from Pittsburgh
    lthough it would gain its fame as a broadcasting station, KDKA actually originated as part of a project to establish private radiotelegraph links between Westinghouse's East Pittsburgh factory and its other facilities, to avoid the business expense of paying for telegraph and telephone lines.
  • 1st Miss American Pageant

    1st Miss American Pageant
    The first known beauty pageant, held as part of a medieval joust re-enactment in 1839, crowned a young women as the 'Queen of Beauty' - even in the 19th century, it was a throwback to days of yore.
  • Teapot Dome Scandal

    Teapot Dome Scandal
    Convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies, Fall became the first presidential cabinet member to go to prison; no one was convicted of paying the bribes. Before the Watergate scandal, Teapot Dome was regarded as the "greatest and most sensational scandal in the history of American politic
  • 1st Winter Olympics Held

    1st Winter Olympics Held
    On January 25, 1924, the first Winter Olympics take off in style at Chamonix in the French Alps.
  • Scopes Monkey Trial

    Scopes Monkey Trial
    In March 1925 the Tennessee legislature had passed the Butler Act, which declared unlawful the teaching of any doctrine denying the divine creation of man as taught by the Bible. World attention focused on the trial proceedings, which promised and delivered confrontation between fundamentalist literal belief and liberal interpretation of the Scriptures. William Jennings Bryan led for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense.
  • The Great Gatsby published by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    The Great Gatsby published by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    The Great Gatsby, third novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1925 by Charles Scribner's Sons. Set in Jazz Age New York, the novel tells the tragic story of Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, and his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, a wealthy young woman whom he loved in his youth.
  • The Jazz Singer debuts (1st movie with sound)

    The Jazz Singer debuts (1st movie with sound)
    On December 30, 1927, The Jazz Singer, the first commercially successful full-length feature film with sound, debuts at the Blue Mouse Theater at 1421 5th Avenue in Seattle. The movie uses Warner Brothers' Vitaphone sound-on-disc technology to reproduce the musical score and sporadic episodes of synchronized speech.
  • St. Valentine's Day Massacre

    St. Valentine's Day Massacre
    The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the 1929 murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang that occurred on Saint Valentine's Day. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park garage on the morning of that feast day, February 14th.
  • The Adoption of the Star Spangled Banner as the National Anthem

    The Adoption of the Star Spangled Banner as the National Anthem
    "The Star-Spangled Banner" was recognized for official use by the United States Navy in 1889, and by U.S. president Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover.
  • Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)

    Black Tuesday (Stock Market Crash)
    Stock prices began to decline in September and early October 1929, and on October 18 the fall began. ... Black Monday was followed by Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929), in which stock prices collapsed completely and 16,410,030 shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day.
  • The Empire State Building Opens

    The Empire State Building Opens
    The Empire State Building was primarily designed to house corporate offices, but it got off to a rocky start thanks to the 1929 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression. ... It wasn't until World War II that the building finally became profitable.
  • Battle of the Philippines

    Battle of the Philippines
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    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.
  • The 17th Amendment is Passed

    The 17th Amendment is Passed
    Passed by Congress May 13, 1912, and ratified April 8, 1913, the 17th amendment modified Article I, section 3, of the Constitution by allowing voters to cast direct votes for U.S. Senators. Prior to its passage, Senators were chosen by state legislatures.