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First book printed in the United States
The Bay Psalm Book, as this work is commonly known, is the first book printed in British North America. The Reverend Jesse Glover imported the first printing press to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638, some 18 years after the first English settlers landed at Plymouth Rock. A London printer, Stephen Daye, came with the press and established a printing office in Cambridge -
Father Eusebio Kino explores northern Mexico and the American Southwest
Nicholas de Fer (1646-1720) was a French cartographer and publisher of atlases. This hand-colored map by de Fer from 1720 is actually a pirated copy of a manuscript map of 1696 by Father -
Outbreak of the French and Indian War
This manuscript pen-and-ink map shows the disposition of troops at the beginning of the Battle of Monongahela, which took place on July 9, 1755, in the second year of the French and Indian War. -
The Boston Massacre
n Boston in the late 1760s, the stirrings of what became the American Revolution began as residents grew angry about the heavy taxation to which they were subjected. -
Declaration of Independence
John Dunlap, official printer to the Continental Congress, produced the first printed versions of the American Declaration of Independence in his Philadelphia shop on the night of July 4, 1776. After the Declaration had been adopted by the Congress earlier that day, a committee took the manuscript document, possibly Thomas Jefferson's "fair copy" of his rough draft, to Dunlap for printing -
Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation
On June 11, 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed three committees in response to the Lee Resolution proposing independence for the American colonies. One of these committees, created to determine the form of a confederation of the colonies, was composed of one representative from each colony. -
Treaty of Paris establishes American independence
This treaty, sent to Congress by the American negotiators John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay, formally ended the Revolutionary War. It was one of the most advantageous treaties ever negotiated for the United States. -
George Washington chairs Constitutional Convention
In 1787, the confederation of the 13 American states was descending into disarray. The coffers were empty, New York and New Jersey were in a dispute over duties charged on goods crossing state lines, farmers in Massachusetts were rebelling, and Spain and Britain were encroaching on American territories in the west. -
Construction of the U.S. Capitol begins
Construction of the Capitol, the building that houses the U.S. Congress, began in 1793 and was largely completed by 1865, when the Capitol’s second dome was finished. -
Thomas Jefferson elected third president of the United States
Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States of America and one of the founding fathers of the republic. With the nation still in the process of solidifying its identity, political figures became a popular subject for contemporary artists, much as kings, aristocracy, and religious figures had been in the past. -
First continental map of the United States
This 1816 map by John Melish (1771–1822) is the first to show the United States as a continental state, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. Melish was a Scot who traveled extensively in the United States in 1806–7. In 1809 he returned to America and settled permanently in Philadelphia, where he advertised himself as “Geographer and Publisher” and set up the first U.S. firm dedicated to map publishing. -
Birth of the modern oil industry, Titusville
This panoramic map shows Titusville, Pennsylvania, as it appeared in 1896. Located in western Pennsylvania, Titusville is known as the place where the modern oil industry began. In 1859, the recently formed Seneca Oil Company hired retired railroad conductor Edwin L. Drake to investigate suspected oil deposits near Titusville. -
Abraham Lincoln elected president
Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) was the 16th president of the United States. He was born on a farm in Kentucky and moved with his family to Indiana at age eight. At age 21, he moved to Illinois, where he held various jobs and began to study law. He had less than one year of formal education, but became a skilled writer by reading the King James Bible and other English classics. -
Bull Run
the Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. Named for the creek or “run” in northern Virginia along which the fighting took place, Bull Run was the first major battle of the American Civil War. After halting several attacks ordered by Union commander General Irvin McDowell, the Confederates under General Pierre Beauregard launched a successful counterattack that drove the tired and inexperienced Union forces back toward Washington. -
Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation
Initially, the Civil War between the North and the South was fought by the North to prevent the secession of the South and preserve the Union. Ending slavery was not a goal. That changed on September 22, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which stated that slaves in those states or parts of states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg, one of the most decisive battles of the American Civil War, was fought on July 1–3, 1863 near a small Pennsylvania town important for its many road and railroad connections. The Confederate army under General Robert E. -
Transcontinental Railroad completed
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act into law on July 1, 1862. The act gave two companies, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad, responsibility for completing the transcontinental railroad and authorized extensive land grants and the issuance of 30-year government bonds to finance the undertaking. -
United States enters World War II
Publicity campaigns were aimed at encouraging those women who had never before held jobs to join the workforce. Poster and film images glorified and glamorized the roles of working women and suggested that a woman’s femininity need not be sacrificed. Women were portrayed as attractive, confident, and resolved to do their part to win the war. -
Martin Luther King, Jr. leads March on Washington
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place in August 1963 and was the setting for the celebrated “I Have a Dream” speech by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. A. Philip Randolph, a labor leader and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, proposed a large march on the capital as a way of prodding -
Apollo 17, last manned lunar mission
The Apollo 17 mission, which took place December 7-19, 1972, was the last of the missions to the moon carried out in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald B. Evans, and Harrison H. Schmitt undertook the mission, which lasted 12 days, 13 hours, and 52 minutes and included a lunar surface stay of 75 hours.
