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Aug 2, 1492
Discovery of America by Columbus
Sailed on August 3, 1492 with three ships. Objective was Asia. First stop was the Canary Islands, and didn't sail until Sept. 6 because lack of wind. The crew was tired and wanted to return home if land was not found in the next 2 days. Land was found the next day on Oct. 12. -
The Settlement of Jamestown
A group called the Virginia Company made up of about 100 members traveled and settle in a place along the James River. Creating the first official English settlement. Disease and conflict with local tribes almost caused Jamestown to fail. In the 1920's, Jamestown began to expand. -
The French and Indian War
Lasted from 1756-1763. Started as France's attempt to extend over the Ohio River valley in the 1750's. Creating conflict between the French and British a war began. Winning the Indians support, France had many victories against England. 1757-New British leader, William Pitt, raised a "vast" British empire, and paid Prussia to fight for them in Europe while Pitt raised troops in North-America. A peace conference in 1763 ended the war. -
Boston Tea Party
A political protest and an act of ending Britain's rule in America that occurred at Griffin's Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. 342 crates of British tea was dumped at the harbor by American colonists who were angry a Britain for imposing "taxation without representation". American colonists from over 13 colonies fought for independence. -
The Battle of Lexington and Concord
This started as tension between the 13 colonies and the British. British troops marched from Boston to Concord when they we stopped and retreated after being heavily fired upon when the famous Paul Revere and other men sounded the alarm of the British Redcoats. Many more battles were fought, which then lead to the final victory for the colonist's independence. This Battle started the Revolutionary War. -
Declaration of Independence
An armed conflict began when the Americans were fighting for the right as subjects to the British crown. The movement towards independence had grown since then. 1776, a group including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin drafted the statements of the colonists. The statements were "adopted" as the "Declaration of Independence" by the congress in Philadelphia. -
The Battle of Yorktown
Both American and French troops joined together to fight the British army. The final attack was on October 14. The battle was led by George Washington and French General Comte de Rochambeau. British General Lord Corwallis surrendered himself and his 9,000 troops after the French and Americans captured two of the British defenses. Yorktown was the final battle of the Revolutionary War. The British began peace negotiations after the American victory. -
The Constitutional Convention
55 delegates gathered in Philadelphia to create a new U.S. Constitution in 1787, 4 years after winning their independence from Britain. The delegates were representing all states except for Rhode Island. Finally, on May 29, 1790, Rhode Island was able to ratify the document. -
The Invention of the Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney (1765-1825) patented the cotton gin. The cotton gin speed up the process of picking seeds and fibers out of the cotton. Eli didn't make much money off of his invention because of patent-infringement problems. Still, slavery was expanding even though the number of abolitionists were climbing. After the cotton gin, Eli chose to make muskets for the U.S. government. Which he then create the changeable parts for the muskets which became very useful. -
The Alien and Sedition Acts
A series of laws were passed in the U.S. in 1798 with the fear that America was going to have another was with France. The laws still exist today; no activities with foreign residents in the country and the limited freedom of speech and of the press. -
The Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana purchase contained 828,000,000 square miles of French territory. "The land was from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mt., in the west and from the Gulf of Mexico in the south of the Canadian border in the north." 15 states within the territory were included in the deal. -
The War of 1812
The start of this war was caused by the British attempts to restrict U.S. trade and America's attempt to expand its territory. The Americans were defeated by the British, Canadians, and the Native Americans. The capturing and burning of the White House also occurred. On Feb. 17, 1815, the war ended with the Treaty of Ghent. -
The Missouri Compromise
Missouri in 1819 requested to the Union as a slave state, which upset the balance between free and slave states. The congress agreed to Missouri's request, but made Maine into a free state. It also drew a line between the Louisiana territory making a boundary for free and slave regions. -
Andrew Jackson's Election
He was president from 1829-1837 as the 7th president. Before his election, he previously lost to John Quincy Adams. Jackson became the leader of the new Democratic Party. As president he extended slavery into the western territories, and relocated the Native Americans to the east side of the Mississippi River. -
The Firing on Fort Sumter
In 1829, Fort Sumter was a coastal garrison being made into a fort. Fort Sumter is known as the place where the first firing of the Civil War took place. Abraham Lincoln's plan to resupply the fort made Confederate General P.G.T Beauregard take over the fort on April 12, 1864. After the Civil War, Fort Sumter was given back to the U.S. -
The Trail of Tears
Nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida-all land their ancestors had occupied for generations. They ended up working for white settlers who wanted cotton on their land. The government forced them to walk thousands of miles to "specially designed Indian territory". The path was then named the "Trail of Tears". -
The Invention of the Telegraph
Samuel Morse started creating the telegraph in the 1830's. The way it worked was through transmitting electronic signals across lines that were laid between stations. He made a code of dots and dashes for each of the letters in the English alphabet. In 1844, he sent his first message from Washington D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland. By 1866, a line was laid across the Atlantic Ocean from the U.S. to Europe. -
The Panic of 1837
Started as a financial crisis and economical crisis. Then is was failure in the wheat crop. It was also President Andrew Jackson's will to change the banking system. President Martin Van Buren was also thought to be one of the causes for the panic because he kept government funds in the U.S. Treasury. -
The Mexican-American War
(1846-1848) The war was marked as the first U.S. armed conflict fought on foreign soil. The war began along the Rio Grande. The majority of the victories were by the U.S. which caused Mexico to loose 1/3 of its territory including today's California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. -
The Compromise of 1850
After the Mexican-American War, California was made a free state, which left Utah and New Mexico undecided whether to be a free or slave state. The Texas-New Mexico boundary left farmers to decide for themselves, which ended slave trading in Washington D.C., and making it easier to find fugitive slaves. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
Many slaves we already escaping and joining the free lands. Abraham Lincoln decided to declare all slaves were "forever" free. This decision created a large fight about human freedom. -
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
The 13th amendment was created in 1865, and it abolishes slavery. The 14th amendment was created in 1868, and it grants citizenship to all who were born or originated in the U.S. including the former slaves. The 15th amendment was created in 1870, and it granted the African-men the equal right to vote. -
The Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
Confederate Robert E. Lee surrendered himself and his army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. After a few hours in the courthouse, the Civil War cam to an end. -
Abraham Lincoln's Assassination
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was Assassinated by a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer named John Wilkes Booth. After a short while when Robert E. Lee surrendered. Lincoln was killed in Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. -
Andrew Johnson's Impeachment
The House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson. They accused him of violating the "Tenure of office act" when he suspended Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton. -
The Organization of the Standard Oil Trust
John D. Rockefeller, founder of the Standard Oil Company, became one of the wealthiest men in the U.S. and a major philanthropist. In 1870, he established his company by investing in a Cleveland, Ohio refinery. In the 1880's, his oil controlled almost 90% of the U.S. refineries and pipelines. However, in 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court found his oil company in violation of anti-trust laws. By the end of his life, Rockefeller donated more that $500 million into philanthropic causes. -
The Invention of the Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell was the creator of the telephone. His first patent was in 1876. He was born in Scotland then moved to America and became a U.S. citizen. He then committed to teaching the deaf. -
The Invention of the Electric Light
Thomas Edison was the creator of the electric light in October of 1879. He tried many other times before that, but his first breakthrough was in 1879. After he mastered the light, he opened up his own electric light company in 1881. -
The Pullman and Homestead Strike
In 1889, the workers of Carnegie Steel Company had won a strike that gave them a three-year contract in Homestead, Pennsylvania. By 1892, Andrew Carnegie had grown tired of the union, and had his plant manager, Henry Clay Frick, bring up the production demands. The workers were not enthused by their decision, so they began another strike, and ended up getting kicked out of the plant. -
The Spanish-American War
In 1898, a conflict between the U.S. and Spain created a war that ended the colonial rule of Spain in America. -
Theodore Roosevelt became President
Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States in September of 1901. He was elected after the assassination of William McKinley. He used millions of acres of land to create wildlife reserves and national forests. During the two terms he served as president, he won a Nobel Prize for his negotiations with the Russo-Japanese War. -
The Invention of the Airplane
Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) and Orville Wright (1871-1948), known as the Wright Brothers, accomplished the first airplane flight in 1903. However, the first "practical" flight was two years later.