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Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. His original objective was to sail west until he reached Asia.
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In 1607, 104 English men arrived in Jamestown, Virginia. This was the first permanent English settlement in North America.
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The French and Indian War (1754 - 1763) was a conflict between British America and New France. Both sides were supported by their parent countries as well as Native Americans
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On December 16, 1773 the Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea by throwing the boxes into the Boston Harbor.
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In April of 1775, British troops were sent to confiscate colonial weapons when they were met with an armed and angry militia. This army defeats 700 British soldiers, sparking their confidence for the war ahead.
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The Declaration of Independence is a statement that announced that the thirteen American Colonies were no longer under British rule. This resulted in the formation of a new nation, the United States of America.
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The Battle of Yorktown was a decisive victory on combined American and French forces against British forces. This led to the surrender of Lord Cornwallis.
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The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from May 25 to September 17 of 1787. This resulted in the creation of the United States Constitution.
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In 1794, Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin. This machine revolutionized the cotton business by speeding up the process of removing the seeds from the cotton fiber.
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The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills signed into law by John Adams in 1798. These laws made it harder for an immigrant to become a citizen, and allowed the President to deport dangerous illegal immigrants.
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In 1803, the U.S paid $11,250,000 to France in exchange for the Louisiana territory that included fifteen present U.S states and parts of two Canadian Provence's. This became known as the Louisiana Purchase.
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In 1812, the United States declared war on Britain. They did so because Britain refused to stop seizing American ships that traded with France - Brittan's enemy
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On March 3, 1820 a bill was passed granting Missouri statehood as a slave state. However, slavery was to be prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase land. This is known as the Missouri compromise.
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The eleventh quadrennial presidential election was from October 31st to December 2nd of 1828. It featured a rematch between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson
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The Panic of 1837 was a major financial crises in the United States that lasted until 1843. Prices and wages went down, and unemployment went up.
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The Trail of Tears was a series of forced removals of Native Americans from their land in the southeastern United States from 1839-1850. The removal of these tribes paved the way for white settlement
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IN 1844, Samuel Morse sent the first telegraph message, from Washington DC, to Baltimore, Maryland. A few years later, there was a telegraph line across the Atlantic ocean, revolutionizing long distance communication.
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The Mexican-American war was an armed conflict between the United Mexican States and the United States of America.
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In September of 1850, five separate bills were passed by congress, these bills defused a four year confrontation between slave and free states.
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In April of 1861, the Confederate army fired upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. This ended in the surrender of the United States Army and started the Civil War
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The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln in January of 1863. This order changed the legal status of over 3 million slaves.
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In April of 1865 near Appomattox Courthouse , Virginia, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.
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The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments are known as the Civil War amendments. They were designed to ensure the equality of recently released slaves.
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On April 14 of 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot and killed Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theatre. Union soldiers tracked him down and found him in a barn twelve days later.
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In February of 1868 Andrew Johnson became the first president to be impeached. He was impeached because he had violated the Tenure of Office Act.
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Established by John D. Rockefeller in 1870, the Standard Oil Trust was the largest oil refinery in the world.
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The Pullman strike and Homestead strike both occurred in 1892. They were industrial lock outs, and two of the largest U.S labor disputes.
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The Spanish-American War was fought between Spain and America from April to August of 1898
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On September 14th, 1901 Theodore Roosevelt began his eight year presidential term. He was the 26th president of the United States, following the assassination of William McKinley.
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By 1903 the world had seen the electric light bulb, the telephone, and the first airplane; flown by the Wright brothers . The electric light bulb was patented by Thomas Edison in 1879. The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, and patented in 1876.
