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Mexico gains independence from Spain
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Americans are defeated at the Alamo
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John Tyler becomes president
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Americans and British agree to the Webster-Ashburton Treaty
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US annexes Texas
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Mexican War begins
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Most members of the Donner Party die en route to California
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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican War
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Free-Soil party organized
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California gold rush begins
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Plains Indians agree to the Fort Laramie Treaty
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US makes the Gadsden Purchase
The US acquires 30,000 square miles from Mexico -
Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act
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The Republican party is founded
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A pro-slavery mob sacks Lawrence Kansas and John Brown retaliates with the Pottawatomie Massacre
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Charles Sumner is caned by a pro-slavery congressman in the Senate
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U.S. Supreme court issues the Dred Scott decision
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Lecompton Constitution declares that slavery will be allowed in Kansas
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Abraham Lincoln debates Stephen A. Douglas during the 1858 Illinois Senate race
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John Brown and his followers' stage raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in an attempt to incite a massive slave insurrection
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South Carolina secedes from the Union
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Crittenden Compromise is proposed
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Trent affair commences when a union warship stops a British ship on the high seas and takes two Confederate agents into custody
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Fort Sumter Falls to Confederate forces; Lincoln issues Call to Arms
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First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
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Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as president
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Peninsular campaign
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Battle of Shiloh, second Bull Run, and Antietam
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Congress passes the Morrill Land Act
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Congress guarantees the construction of a Transcontinental Railroad
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Congress passes the Homestead Act
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Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation
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Siege of Vicksburg, Battle of Gettysburg and Chattanooga
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Lincoln refuses to sign the Wade-Davis Bill
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13th Amendment is ratified
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Congress sets up the Freedmen's Bureau
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Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House
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Lincoln is assassinated
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Ku Klux Klan is organized
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Congress passes the Civil Rights Act
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Congress passes the military Reconstruction Act
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Congress passes the Tenure of Office Act
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Fourteenth Amendment is ratified
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Congress impeaches President Andrew Johnson; the Senate fails to convict him
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Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction
