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Birth of Tecumseh
Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee who led a large tribal confederacy which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and became an ally of Britain in the War of 1812. -
Birth of Jim Bowie
Jim Bowie was a 19th-century American pioneer, who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution, culminating in his death at the Battle of the Alamo. -
Lousiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase "Sale of Louisiana" was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory (828,000 square miles) by the United States from France in 1803. -
Clermont Steamboat
Fulton returned to the United States in 1806. Builds the Clermont. Fulton directed the construction of a steamboat in New York in 1807. -
Prophetstown
Prophet's Town or Prophetstown was the site of the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe. Prophetstown State Park, near the battle site. -
Seminole Wars
The Seminole Wars, also known as the Florida Wars, were three conflicts in Florida between the Seminole—the collective name given to the amalgamation of various groups of Native Americans and African Americans who settled in Florida in the early 18th century—and the United States Army. -
Spanish Cession
1819 a treaty was signed in which Spain agreed to cede, or give, Florida to the United States. In return, the U.S. agreed to pay $5 million which the Spanish government owed to American citizens. -
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Independence, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. -
Erie Canal Opens
Proposed in 1808 and completed in 1825, the canal links the waters of Lake Erie in the west to the Hudson River in the east. An engineering marvel when it was built, some called it the Eighth Wonder of the World. -
First Telograph
Sent by inventor Samuel F.B. Morse on May 24, 1844, over an experimental line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, the message said: "What hath God wrought?" -
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. -
Treaty of New Echota
It cost three men their lives and provided the legal basis for the Trail of Tears, the forcible removal of the Cherokee Nation from Georgia. The Treaty of New Echota was signed on this day in 1835, ceding Cherokee land to the U.S. in exchange for compensation -
The Alamo
Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San Antonio), Texas, United States, killing all of the Texian defenders. -
Trail Of Tears
In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its devastating effects. -
Texas Statehood
Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state. -
Oregon Treaty
The Oregon Treaty is a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States that was signed on June 15, 1846, in Washington, D.C. -
Donner Party
The Donner Party was a group of American pioneers led by George Donner and James F. Reed who set out for California in a wagon train in May 1846. -
Sutters Mill
Sutter's Mill was a sawmill, owned by 19th-century pioneer John Sutter, where gold was found, setting off the California Gold Rush -
Mexican Concession
The Mexican Cession of 1848 is a historical name in the United States for the region of the modern day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S. in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. -
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California Statehood
In 1849, Californians sought statehood and, after heated debate in the U.S. Congress arising out of the slavery issue, California entered the Union as a free, non-slavery state by the Compromise of 1850. California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. -
Oregon Territory
In 1846 the Oregon Treaty was signed between the US and Britain to settle the boundary dispute -
Start of the Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States fought from 1861 to 1865. -
Alaska Purchased
On March 30, 1867, the United States reached an agreement to purchase Alaska from Russia for a price of $7.2 million. -
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States was built in the 1860s, linking the well developed railway network of the Eastern coast with rapidly growing California. -
Golden Spike
The golden spike (also known as The Last Spike) is the ceremonial final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869. -
Little Big Horn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass and commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand. -
Massacre at Wounded Knee
Located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota,was the site of two conflicts between North American Indians and representatives of the U.S. government. -
Arizona Statehood
Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912. Historically part of the territory of Alta California in New Spain, it became part of independent Mexico in 1821 -
Oregon Trail
From about 1811-1840 the Oregon Trail was laid down by traders and fur trappers. It could only be traveled by horseback or on foot. By the year 1836, the first of the migrant train of wagons was put together.
