-
Aug 3, 1492
Columbus discovers the New World for Spain
Christopher Columbus Discovers America in 1492. Columbus led his three ships - the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria - out of the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492. -
Jul 7, 1520
Hernan Cortez defeats the Aztecs
Cortés invaded Mexico in 1519 and conquered the Aztec Empire. Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador, or conqueror, best remembered for conquering the Aztec empire in 1521 and claiming Mexico for Spain. He also helped colonize Cuba and became a governor of New Spain. -
Jamestown is founded
Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America. It was founded in 1607 and served as the capital of the Virginia colony for over 80 years. In 1606, King James I of England gave the Virginia Company of London the charter to establish a new colony in North America. -
Period: to
The "Starving Time" in Jamestown
“The starving time” was the winter of 1609-1610, when food shortages, fractured leadership, and a siege by Powhatan Indian warriors killed two of every three colonists at James Fort. From its beginning, the colony struggled to maintaining a food supply. -
Plymouth is founded
The settlers were a group of about 100 Puritan Separatist Pilgrims, who sailed on the Mayflower and settled on what is now Cape Cod bay, Massachusetts. They named the first town after their port of departure. -
Mayflower Compact signed
Mayflower Compact, document signed on the English ship Mayflower on November 21,1620 prior to its landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was the first framework of government written and enacted in the territory that is now the United States of America. -
1st Thanksgiving
The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. This feast lasted three days, and—as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow—it was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. -
Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts were a series of laws passed by the English Parliament to regulate shipping and maritime commerce. The Acts increased colonial revenue by taxing the goods going to and from British colonies. -
New Amsterdam becomes New York
Following its capture, New Amsterdam's name was changed to New York, in honor of the Duke of York, who organized the mission. The colony of New Netherlands was established by the Dutch West India Company in 1624 and grew to encompass all of present-day New York City and parts of Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey -
Period: to
King Philip's War
King Philip's War was an armed conflict in 1675–1678 between Indian inhabitants of New England and New England colonists and their Indian allies. The war is named for Metacomet, the Wampanoag chief who adopted the name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father Massasoit and the Mayflower Pilgrims -
Period: to
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion that took place 1676-1677 by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. -
Period: to
Salem Witchcraft Trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than two hundred people were accused. Thirty were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging. -
Stono Rebellion
The Stono Rebellion was a slave rebellion that began on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina. It was the largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies, with 25 colonists and 35 to 50 Africans killed. -
Period: to
French and Indian War
Also known as the Seven Years’ War, this New World conflict marked another chapter in the long imperial struggle between Britain and France. When France’s expansion into the Ohio River valley brought repeated conflict with the claims of the British colonies, a series of battles led to the official British declaration of war in 1756. -
Ben Franklin proposed the Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union was a proposal introduced by Benjamin Franklin during the Albany Congress in 1754. Franklin's plan called for the formation of a permanent federation of colonies, as a means to reform colonial-imperial relations, and to more effectively address shared colonial interests. -
Treaty of 1763
The Treaty of Paris, also known as the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763 by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement, after Great Britain's victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years' War. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued by King George III on October 7, 1763, following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the Seven Years' War. It forbade all settlement west of a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains, which was delineated as an Indian Reserve. -
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. -
England Passes the Quartering Act
On March 24, 1765, the British Parliament passed the Quartering Act, one of a series of measures primarily aimed at raising revenue from the British colonies in America. ... The act did require colonial governments to provide and pay for feeding and sheltering any troops stationed in their colony -
Period: to
The Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed by the British government on the American colonies in 1767. They placed new taxes and took away some freedoms from the colonists including the following: New taxes on imports of paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, known to the British as the Incident on King Street, was a confrontation on March 5, 1770 in which British soldiers shot and killed several people while being harassed by a mob in Boston. The event was heavily publicized by leading Patriots such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, at Griffin's Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor. -
The 1st Continental Congress Convenes
On September 5, 1774, delegates from each of the 13 colonies except for Georgia (which was fighting a Native American uprising and was dependent on the British for military supplies) met in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress to organize colonial resistance to Parliament's Coercive Acts. -
The "Shot Heard 'Round the World"
On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops set off from Boston toward Concord, Massachusetts, in order to seize weapons and ammunition stockpiled there by American colonists. Early the next morning, the British reached Lexington, where approximately 70 minutemen had gathered on the village green. Someone suddenly fired a shot—it’s uncertain which side—and a melee ensued. -
The Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was peripherally involved in the battle. -
Thomas Paine Publishes Common Sense
Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet “Common Sense,” setting forth his arguments in favor of American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries. -
Rhode Island is Founded
Roger Williams founded the colony in 1636. He guaranteed religious and political freedom. Religious refugees from the Massachusetts Bay Colony settled in Rhode Island. -
Maryland is Founded
The Province of Maryland—also known as the Maryland Colony—was founded in 1632 as a safe haven for English Catholics fleeing anti-Catholic persecution in Europe. The colony was established by Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (also known as Lord Baltimore), who also governed the Colony of Newfoundland and the Province of Avalon. -
Declaration of Independence Signed
In fact, independence was formally declared on July 2, 1776, a date that John Adams believed would be “the most memorable epocha in the history of America.” On July 4, 1776, Congress approved the final text of the Declaration. It wasn't signed until August 2, 1776. -
Period: to
Battle of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. -
The Articles of Confederation are Implemented
The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, on November 15, 1777. However, ratification of the Articles of Confederation by all thirteen states did not occur until March 1, 1781. -
Period: to
Battle of Yorktown
Battle of Yorktown. In the fall of 1781, a combined American force of Colonial and French troops laid siege to the British Army at Yorktown, Virginia. Yorktown proved to be the final battle of the American Revolution, and the British began peace negotiations shortly after the American victory. -
Treaty of 1783
The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War. -
Period: to
Shay's Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts in opposition to a debt crisis among the citizenry and the state government's increased efforts to collect taxes both on individuals and their trades; the fight took place mostly in and around Springfield during 1786 and 1787. -
Period: to
Constitutional/Philadelphia Convention Gathers
In 1787, Congress authorized delegates to gather in Philadelphia and recommend changes to the existing charter of government for the 13 states, the Articles of Confederation, which many Americans believed had created a weak, ineffective central government. -
The Northwest Ordinance was Established
The Northwest Ordinance, adopted July 13, 1787, by the Confederation Congress, chartered a government for the Northwest Territory, provided a method for admitting new states to the Union from the territory, and listed a bill of rights guaranteed in the territory. -
Pennsylvania is Founded
The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was founded in English North America by William Penn on March 4, 1681 as dictated in a royal charter granted by King Charles II. -
Connecticut is Founded
The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut, originally known as the Connecticut River. Colony led 100 people to Hartford in 1636. He and Puritan minister Thomas Hooker are often considered the founders of the Connecticut colony. -
The Constitution is Ratified
The day the Constitution was 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. -
George Washington Inaugurated as First President
The presidency of George Washington began on April 30, 1789, when Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1797. Washington took office after the 1788–89 presidential election, the nation's first quadrennial presidential election, in which he was elected unanimously. -
Period: to
Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington, ultimately under the command of American Revolutionary war veteran Major James McFarlane. -
Jay's Treaty is Signed
Jay's Treaty, officially titled “Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty; and The United States of America,” was negotiated by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay and signed between the United States and Great Britain on November 19, 1794. -
Treaty of Greenville
The Treaty of Greenville, formally titled Treaty with the Wyandots, etc., was a 1795 treaty between the United States and Indians of the Northwest Territory including the Wyandot and Delaware, which redefined the boundary between Indian lands and Whiteman's lands in the Northwest Territory. -
Pinckney's Treaty
Pinckney's Treaty, also commonly known as the Treaty of San Lorenzo or the Treaty of Madrid, was signed in San Lorenzo de El Escorial on October 27, 1795 and established intentions of friendship between the United States and Spain. -
Period: to
XYZ Affair
The XYZ Affair was a diplomatic incident between French and United States diplomats that resulted in a limited, undeclared war known as the Quasi-War. U.S. and French negotiators restored peace with the Convention of 1800, also known as the Treaty of Mortefontaine. -
John Adams Becomes 2nd President
When George Washington refused a third term in 1797, Adams was elected President (1797-1801). In 1797, Adams became the second President of the United States. He was the first President who belonged to a political party - the Federalists. -
The Alien and Sedition Acts are Passed
A series of laws known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by the Federalist Congress in 1798 and signed into law by President Adams. These laws included new powers to deport foreigners as well as making it harder for new immigrants to vote. -
Period: to
Quasi-War
The Quasi-War (1798-1800) was an undeclared naval war between the United States and France during the Presidency of John Adams. It grew out of the XYZ Affair and ended when French politics changed direction after Napoleon came into power. -
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were Passed
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were political statements drafted in 1798 and 1799, in which the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures took the position that the federal Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional. -
Thomas Jefferson Becomes the 3rd President
Jefferson was sworn into office on March 4, 1801; his was the first presidential inauguration held in Washington, D.C. (George Washington was inaugurated in New York in 1789; in 1793, he was sworn into office in Philadelphia, as was his successor, John Adams, in 1797.) -
The Supreme Court Rules on Marbury v. Madison
Marbury v. Madison was a 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, statutes, and some government actions that violate the Constitution of the United States. -
The Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from France in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000 sq mi. -
Chesapeake Affair
The Chesapeake–Leopard affair was a naval engagement that occurred off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, on June 22, 1807, between the British warship HMS Leopard and the American frigate USS Chesapeake. The crew of Leopard pursued, attacked, and boarded the American frigate, looking for deserters from the Royal Navy. -
Embargo Act of 1807
The Embargo Act of 1807 was a law passed by the United State Congress and signed by President Thomas Jefferson on December 22, 1807. It prohibited American ships from trading in all foreign ports. In 1806, France passed a law that prohibited trade between neutral parties, like the U.S., and Britain. -
James Madison Becomes 4th President
James Madison, America's fourth President (1809-1817), made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing The Federalist Papers, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In later years, he was referred to as the “Father of the Constitution.” -
Congress Declares War on England
On June 18, 1812, President James Madison signed a declaration of war against Great Britain, marking the beginning of the War of 1812. By December, both the Americans and the British recognized that it was time to end the conflict -
Treaty of Ghent
The Treaty of Ghent was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Both sides signed it on December 24, 1814, in the city of Ghent, United Netherlands -
Period: to
Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815 between British troops led by General Edward Pakenham and American forces led by General Andrew Jackson. Despite being outnumbered 2:1, the Americans, who had constructed sophisticated earthworks, won a decisive victory against the British assault.
