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Period: 1492 to
US History A Timeline
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Oct 12, 1492
Discovery of America
Columbus and his crew discover America at approximately 2:00 in the morning. The Pinta's lookout, Juan Rodriguez Bermeo, alerted the captain of the vessel, Captain Martin Alonso Pinzon, as soon as land had been seen, who then notified Columbus of land ahead. Columbus then took credit of the discovery. -
Jamestown is founded
Jamestown was founded along the east bank of the James River and named as James Fort by the Virginia Company of London. Jamestown became considered permanent in 1610, even though it had been briefly abandoned. James Fort was renamed as Jamestown in 1619. -
French and Indian War begins
Governor Robert Dinwiddie sent a company of 40 men led by William Trent to what would become Fort Duquesne, but the company was met by a 500-man reinforcement group. Trent's company was generously allowed to pull out of the area. -
The Battle of Jumonville Glen
Dinwiddie had sent George Washington with a task force larger than the reinforcement group at Fort Duquense to assist Trent and his group. Washington heard about Trent's withdraw from the area while his force was en route, and when they arrived the battle began. This battle had resulted in the death of the French commanding officer Joseph Coulon de Jumonville. -
Albany Congress
From June 18 to July 11, 1754, this congress met to formalize a unified front in trade and negotiations with various Indians because allegiance of the various tribes and nations appeared to be pivotal due to the ongoing war. -
The Battle of Fort Necessity
Jumonville's brother led this attack on Washington's fort that he established several miles from Fort Duquense. Washington had ended up surrendering and negotiated an armed withdraw. Washington has received a report that the Canadians at the battle were assisted by the Shawnee, Delaware, and Mingo tribes. -
British Campaigns
The British sent General Braddock on an expedition to Fort Duquesne and tasked Massachusetts governor William Shirley to fortify Oswego and attack Fort Niagara. Britain also had Sir William Johnson capture Fort St. Frederic, and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Mockton capture Fort Beausejour. Braddock's expedition was ambushed, killing him and 1,000 troops, Shirley didn't get Owsego fortified, Johnson's expedition went as planed, and Mockton had captured Beausejour. -
French and Indian War ends
The war in America ended on February 10, 1763, when the Treaty of Paris was signed, and five days later the war ended in Europe with the signing of the Treaty of Hubertusburg. -
The Boston Tea Party
This was the rebellion on the British Parliament's tax on tea, the Tea Act. There were seven ships sent from the East India Company to the colonies; four were sent to Boston, and one to New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. There were more than 2,000 chests in total containing upwards of 600,000 pounds of tea in total. Approximately 343,000 pounds of tea got dumped into the harbor and the saying "No taxation without representation" was said afterwards. -
Lexington and Concord
These battles were the first battles of the Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Lexington, Concord, Lincoln,
Menotomy (present day Arlington), and Cambridge, and they marked the the beginning of the armed conflict between the thirteen colonies and the British Kingdom. -
The Signing of the Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, to state and explain America's separation from Britain. It was originally created by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. it was signed by the 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress. -
The Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown was the last major land battle of the Revolutionary War which ended on October 19, 1781, with the capture of Lord Cornwallis and his troops, which caused the British to negotiate an end to the conflict. This victory resulted with the end of major land operations in North America. -
The Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention was held from May 27, 1787, to September 17, 1787, and was held to create a new government system instead of fixing the current one. This convention also resulted in the Constitution of the United States being created. -
The Creation of the Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney had applied to get a patent for the cotton gin, but it was granted on March 14, 1794. The patent had not been validated until 1807. -
The Alien Enemies Act
This act allowed the president to imprison or deport any alien who had ties with a hostile nation. -
The Sedation Act
This act criminalized making false statements that were critical to the federal government. -
The Louisiana Purchase
This was an acquisition for the Louisiana Territory, which is 828,000 square miles, by the United States to France for $15 million, being 68 million francs. -
The War of 1812
This was a conflict between the US and the UK, plus their respective allies that lasted from June 18, 1812, to February 18, 1815. America aided France against the UK. In 1814, the French and the UK signed the Treaty of Ghent, but the US didn't receive word of the treaty until February 17, 1815, and ended the war with no boundary changes. -
The Missouri Compromise
Congress had passed a bill on March 3, 1820, that granted Missouri statehood as a slave state under the condition that slavery was to be forever prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36th parallel, Missouri's southern border. -
Andrew Jackson's Election
This was the 11th quadrennial presidential election and was held from October 31, 1828, to December 2, 1828. It was the rematch election of 1824 between John Quincy Adams of the Republican Party faced Andrew Jackson of the Democratic Party. -
The Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession while wages went down and the unemployment rate went up and lasted from 1837 to 1843. -
The Trail of Tears
In 1838 and 1839, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and relocate to an area in present day Oklahoma because of Andrew Jackson's Indian relocation policy. This is what the Cherokee called it because of its devastating effects. -
The invention of the Telegraph
Samuel F. B. Morse transmitted his famous "What hath God wrought?" message from Washington to Baltimore on May 24, 1844. -
The Mexican-American War
This was an armed conflict between the US and Mexico that started with the annexation of the Republic of Texas. The war lasted from May 25, 1846, to February 3, 1848, when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. There was also a purchase made, the Gadsen Purchase. This added the bottom of what is modern Arizona and New Mexico. -
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was five separate bills passed by the US Congress in 1850 and defused the four year political conflict over slave and free states on the status of the territory acquired during the American-Mexican War. This compromise had Texas surrender its claims to New Mexico and anything north of what is now the pan handle, California admitted as a free state, the south prevent adoption of the Wilmot Proviso, slave trade banned in DC, and enacted a more strict Fugitive Slave Law. -
The Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was a day long battle from April 12 to 13, 1861. The Confederate bombardment began at 4:30 a.m. on the 12th, and the Union had returned fire until surrendering 32 hours later. There were no deaths during the bombardment, but a weapon misfire during the surrender ceremony on the 14th killed 2 Union soldiers. This battle later led on to the American Civil War. -
The Standard Oil Trust
John D. Rockefeller forms Standard Oil Trust and it became the largest oil refinery in 1868. The company renamed itself to Standard Oil Company in 1870 when Rockefeller decided to buy all other competition. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1836, as a presidential proclamation and executive order that changed the legal state of over 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the south from slave to free. The Proclamation was issued as a war measure during the Civil War, being directed to all rebellious areas and all segments of the executive branch in the US - including the Military and Navy. -
The 13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment, along with the 14th and 15th, were designed to ensure the equality of recently emancipated slaves. The 13th in particular banned slavery and involuntary servitude unless it was a punishment for a crime. -
Surrender at the Appomattox Courthouse
The battle that occurred here was one of the last of the American Civil War. Robert E. Lee and his troops were pinned at the courthouse by Ulysses S. Grant and his troops, and Lee was forced to surrender. Word of the surrender spread, causing more surrenders across the South and ending the war. -
Abraham Lincoln's Assassination
Lincoln's assassination occurred at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC, carried out by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was watching Tom Taylor's play Our American Cousin when Booth snuck into his viewing box and shot him. Lincoln survived, but succumbed to his injury the next morning. John's original plan was to kidnap Abe to blackmail the North to continue on with their war prisoner trade that Ulysses Grant had suspended in March 1864. He could have killed Abe at his second inauguration a month prior. -
The 14th Ammendment
The 14th Amendment defined a citizen as any person born or naturalized in the United States, overturning the Dred Scott V. Sanford Supreme Court ruling that stated Blacks were not eligible for citizenship. -
Andrew Johnson's Impeachment
The United States House of Representatives resolved on this decision on February 24, 1868, when they adopted 11 articles of impeachment that detailed his high crimes according to Article 2 of the US Constitution. His main violation was against the Tenure of Office Act over the President's veto. He removed the Secretary of War, Edwin McMasters Stanton, and tried to replace him with Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas. This ultimately ended with Johnson's impeachment. -
The 15th Ammendment
The 15th Amendment prohibited governments from denying US citizens the right of voting based on race, color, or past servitude. -
The Telephone is invented
The first bi-directional telephone is invented by Alexander Graham Bell. -
The Electric Light is invented
The first practical electric light bulb is invented by Thomas Edison. -
The Homestead Strike
The Homestead Strike was an industrial lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, and resonated into a striker on private security brawl on July 6, 1892. The dispute was between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company. The strike resulted to be majorly unsuccessful and put a setback to their plan to unionize steelworkers. -
The Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike was a nationwide railroad strike in the US that took place from May 11 to July 20, 1894. This strike was a major turning point for the US labor law. The American Railway Union protested against the Pullman Company, main railroads, and the federal government of the US. The strikes and boycott shut down many major freighter and passenger rail traffic anywhere west of Detroit, Michigan. Thirty people were killed and a railway sabotage cost $80 million in damage. -
The Spanish-American War
Lasting from April 4 to August 13, 1898, the Spanish-American War was fought between America and Spain. America was brought into the Cuban War for Independence after the internal explosion on the USS Maine in Havana Harbor. President McKinley had signed a Congressional resolution demanding Spain withdraw from Cuba and asked for the Military to assist Cuba. Spain then severed diplomatic ties with the US and the fighting started a few days later. The Treaty of Paris of 1898 ended the conflict. -
Theodore Roosevelt becomes President
Roosevelt was in office from September 14, 1901, to March 4, 1909. He had become President after President McKinley was assassinated in New York. He served his first term without a Vice President -
The first Airplane is invented
The first motorized airplane is invented by Wilbur and Orville Wright in Kitty Hawk, Arizona.
