US BIG BOY TIMELINE

By Andres Echeverri

  • George Washington Elected President

  • Judiciary Act of 1789

    Established the Supreme Court
  • Period: to

    The Early Republic

  • French Revolution

    Federalists oppose it, Anti-Federalists support (U.S. Neutral)

  • Rhode Island becomes 9th state to officially ratify the Constitution

  • Alexander Hamilton creates Bank of the United States (opposed by Jefferson) •– All states unanimously ratify the Bill of Rights

  • Proclamation of American Neutrality (by George Washington) –keeps America neutral after France declares war on Britain, Spain, and Holland (example of U.S. foreign policy)

  • Eli Whitney invents Cotton Gin

    Creates massive increase of slaves in the South

  • Whiskey Rebellion

    1st time U.S. Government uses Federal troops to subdue domestic issues (Farmers did not like new excise taxes)

  • Treaty of Greenville

    U.S. cheaply pays 12 Native American tribes for Ohio territory

  • Pinckney Treaty

    Spain gives U.S. navigation rights on Mississippi River, New Orleans

  • John Adams (Federalist) defeats Thomas Jefferson (Republican) in first contested Presidential Election; Jefferson becomes Vice President

  • XYZ Affair

    French try to extort U.S. for diplomatic meetings – public wants war

  • Alien & Sedition Acts

    expands Gov’t power, limit dissent and weakening of Gov’t, ruled unconstitutional

  • Kentucky & Virginia Resolutions

    increase state rights over Federal rights, written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison

  • 2nd Great Awakening – major religious reform movement; helps increase abolition

  • Thomas Jefferson defeats John Adams (controversy); Aaron Burr is VP

  • Alexander Hamilton suggests U.S. capital moves to Washington, D.C. (move helps gain Southern support for Hamilton’s economics)

  • John Marshall becomes first chief justice of the Supreme Court -Judiciary Act/Midnight Judges – Adams attempt to secure the Federalist party days before he is to leave office by appointing Federalists into office

  • Marbury vs. Madison establishes Judicial Review

    Marbury vs. Madison establishes Judicial Review

  • Louisana Purchase – not known to Jefferson if it was constitutional to annex land, Congress approves purchase from France, doubles the size of U.S.

  • Lewis and Clark Expedition sets to survey land of Louisana Purchase (Sacagawea guided)

  • Period: to

    Westward Expansion and Strained Neutrality

  • Lewis and Clark Expedition sets to survey land of Louisana Purchase (Sacagawea guided)

  • Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton in a duel

  • Embargo Act

    placed by Jefferson on Britain/France; fails – hurts U.S. economy

  • James Madison elected President

  • Tecumseh establishes union of Native Americans to resist westward movement of U.S.

  • William Henry Harrison leads attack on Tecumseh at Battle of Tippecanoe

  • Period: to

    War of 1812

    -Congress declares war on Britain (issues – impressments, blockades, economy, Native Americans)
    -Native Americans begin attacking U.S. settlers (weapons provided by Britain)
    -Treat of Ghent ends War of 1812
    -Harford Convention – New England’s states threaten secession; Federalist Party is no more
    -‘Era of Good Feelings’ (one party politics) begins in the U.S.
    – U.S independence finally confirmed – Good relations with Britain begins (i.e. sharing of Oregon Territory)

  • Underground Railroad provides Northern escape for slaves

  • James Monroe elected 5th President (reelected in 1820)

  • Period: to

    Nationalism, Sectionalism, and Economic Expansion

    -Westward Expansion across North America – transportation revolution
    -Sectional Tension between North and South increases over Slavery
    -Major economic differences develop b/n North and South related to slavery

  • Erie Canal

    construction begins (connects Great Lakes to Atlantic Ocean)

  • McCulloch vs. Maryland

    – ruling confirms Congresses’ right to found the 2nd Bank of the United States

  • Spain cedes Florida to the U.S.

  • Missouri Compromise

    sets dividing line between free and slaves states at
    latitude 36’30’ o Above line (free), Below line (slave)

  • Stephen F. Austin establishes first U.S. Settlement in Texas

  • Monroe Doctrine

    claims western hemisphere closed to European intervention (first major U.S. foreign diplomacy)

  • Gibbons vs. Ogden

    establishes federal control of interstate commerce

  • Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on same day (50th anniversary of Dec. of Independence)

  • Period: to

    Age of Jackson

    -Two party system fully emerges in US politics for first time
    -Indian Removal Act–authorizes forcible westward relocation of Native Americans
    -Cyrus McCormick–invents mechanical reaper – transforms agriculture
    -Ralph Waldo Emerson – transcendentalism (individualism)
    – Thoreau – Civil Disobedience
    -Spoils System–giving government positions to friends or colleagues (Andrew Jackson)
    -Horace Mann–reforms in education
    -Trail of Tears–Cherokee tribes sent on forced removal to Oklahoma, 4,000 die

  • First Jim Crow Laws established (legal segregation)

  • Manifest Destiny

    U.S. destiny and duty to expand and conquer the west

  • William Lloyd Garrison – wants immediate emancipation (he was white)

  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

    ends Mexican War, Mexico cedes Texas and all land north of the Rio Grande to U.S. (creates modern border of the U.S. with Gadsden Purchase)

  • Fugitive Slave Act

    illegal to help slaves escape

  • Compromise of 1850

    North gets California as free states, ban of sale of slaves in D.C.
    South gets stricter enforcement of Fugitive Slave Act, $10 mil to Texas
  • Period: to

    Antebellum Period (pre-civil war)

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    repeals Missouri Compromise, popular sovereignty to determine slave/free states

  • “Bleeding Kansas”

    John Brown leads antislavery massacre at Pottawatomie Creek, fight over slavery in Kansas

  • Dred Scott vs. Sanford

    ruling effectively nullifies Missouri Compromise, declares that slaves are property – cannot sue.

  • Lincoln-Douglas Debates

    – Stephen Douglas wins Illinois Senate seat. Lincoln a household name

  • John Brown leads attack on arsenal at Harper’s Ferry; later captured and hanged

  • – Abraham Lincoln elected 16th President; South Carolina secedes the Union = Civil War •1861 – Confederate States formed , Jefferson Davis – 1st and only President

  • Period: to

    The Civil War

  • – Fort Sumter (S.C.) – confederates attack Union – war starts

  • Homestead Act

    160 acres to each farmer willing to cultivate land in West

  • Battle of Antietam

    bloodiest battle of the Civil War

  • Battle of Gettysburg

    – turning point of Civil War; South never recovers

  • Emancipation Proclamation

    frees slaves in only Confederate states; foreign diplomacy

  • William Sherman

    ‘March to Sea’ – Atlanta to Savannah – destroys everything!

  • - 13th Amendment

    abolishes slavery

  • Gen. Robert E. Lee (confederacy) surrenders at Appomattox Court House to Union Gen. Ulysses Grant

  • Abraham Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth; Andrew Johnson now President

  • South establishes Black Codes

    – limits rights of freed blacks
  • Period: to

    Reconstruction

  • Civil Rights Act of 1866

    – grants citizenship to all people born in U.S. (14th Amendment)

  • Tenure of Office Act

    – used to impeach Andrew Johnson (said he had violated it)

  • U.S. purchase Alaska from Russia (becomes 49th state in 1959)

  • – Transcontinental Railroad

    – connects the coasts of the United States; greatest transportation achievement

  • 15thAmendment

    – grants protection of voting rights to black males

  • Hiram Revels– first black senator – Mississippi

  • William “Boss” Tweed – greatest example of a political machine (NYC)

  • Slaughter House Cases – authority of state governments over individuals

  • – Whiskey Ring Scandal

    – corruption in Grants administration & Republican party

  • Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse lead Sioux to crushing victory of General George Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn

  • Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

  • Period: to

    The Gilded Age

  • Susan B. Anthony

    – gets women’s suffrage vote to Congress – leads to 19th Amendment

  • Thomas Edison creates the electric light

  • – President James Garfield assassinated

  • Booker T. Washington

    – gradual approach to equal rights – prove yourself W.E.B Dubois – changes in civil rights now; founds the NAACP

  • Chinese Exclusion Act

    – bans Chinese immigration for 10 years

  • John D. Rockefeller

    – Standard Oil Trust; Andrew Carnegie – Steel

  • – Dawes Severalty Act

    – denies tribal rights, advances forced assimilation, opens lands to whites

  • Chinese government crushes pro-democracy revolt in Tiananmen Square

  • – Wounded Knee

    – Federal forces massacre 200 Sioux Indians

  • – Sherman Antitrust Act

    – outlaws monopolies, price-fixing, other trade restraints

  • – Populist Party

    – formed specifically to give farmers a voice in government

  • Yellow Journalism

    journalism that features unethical or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or individual journalists.

  • **Plessy vs. Ferguson

    – ‘Separate but Equal’ is constitutional (overturned by Brown vs. Board of Education)

  • Grandfather Clause

    voting rights of blacks challenged with literacy tests and poll taxes

  • Spanish-American War – Teddy Roosevelt leads Rough Riders, U.S. crushes Spain’s Navy

  • Treat of Paris – ends the Spanish-American War

  • –Open Door Policy

    U.S. attempt to gain foothold in Chinese markets

  • President McKinley assassinated, Teddy Roosevelt now 26th President

  • Period: to

    Progressive Era

  • – Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine

    – increases U.S. presence in Latin America

  • Muckraker

    writers who expose big business corruption

  • Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection

    set food quality standards

  • Panama Canal

    – connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (opens in 1914)

  • Henry Ford introduces the Model T car, assembly lines introduced

  • 16th Amendment

    – establishment of income tax , 17th Amend.– direct election of senators

  • – World War I begins in Europe

  • German U-Boat sinks British passenger liner Lusitania, Americans killed on board

  • Period: to

    U.S. involvement in World War I

    •Woodrow Wilson wins reelection on campaign of keeping U.S. neutral during war
    •WWI – bloodiest war in world history to date, aka “The Great War,” “The War to End All Wars”

  • – Germany continues unrestricted submarine warfare – gets warning from U.S

  • – Zimmerman Telegram

    – intercepted by British, asks for Germany/Mexico alliance against U.S.; US. Enters WWI

  • – Selective Service Act

    – establishes the draft

  • Fourteen Points

    – by Woodrow Wilson, 14th pt most important – calls for League of Nations

  • Treaty of Versailles – ends WWI; calls for heavy reparations on Germany, disarmament, and creation of League of Nations; U.S. Senate rejects it

  • – 19th Amendment –

    women’s suffrage (right to vote)
  • Period: to

    The Roaring Twenties

  • – Teapot Dome Scandal

    – exposes massive corruption in Harding Administration

  • – Dawes Plan

    – ease war reparations on Germany

  • Scopes Monkey Trial

    popularizes debate over teaching evolution in schools – outlawed

  • Charles Lindbergh

    – completes world’s first solo flight across Atlantic – seen as a hero

  • Sacco and Vanzetti– executed for murder; controversial because the were anarchists, politically motivated and unjustified

  • – Stock Market Crash– ‘Black Tuesday’

    – launches Great Depression
  • Period: to

    The Great Depression

  • – Bonus Army (WWI vets) march on Washington demanding compensation – forced out

  • - Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President

  • U.S. unemployment rate reaches 25%, FDR claims Bank Holiday to fix banks

  • Fireside Chats

    FDR address public on radio – continues to 1944 – gives public hope

  • –1st 100 Days

    – creation of countless jobs, most productive of any president’s 1st 100 days

  • New Programs

    • Unemployment Relief Act and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to employ public works oAAA – controls crop production, compensates farmers for cooperation oTVA – established to construct dams in Tennessee River to generate electricity oNIRA – sets nationwide business practices oNRA – manage industry recovery oPWA – employ jobless

  • Amendments

    20thAmendment – shifts presidential inaugurations from March to January
    •21st Amendment – repeals 18th amendment (prohibition)

  • –Huey Long

    criticizes FDR, “Share Our Wealth” proposes large tax burden on wealthy

  • – Wagner Act

    – supports union rights, protects collective bargaining

  • - Social Security Act

    – establishes funds for unemployed and elderly

  • FDR elected for unprecedented 3rd Term

  • Lend-Lease Act

    – provides U.S. loan aid to Britain, USSR & allied powers

  • Atlantic Charter–

    agreement b/n U.S President FDR and Britain Prime Minister Churchill
  • Period: to

    World War II

    •*Germany (led by Adolf Hitler) invades Poland; WWII begins
    •*U.S. attempts isolationism from war in Europe
    •*December 7, 1941 – Japan bombs Pearl Harbor – U.S. enters the War
    •*Axis Powers– Germany, Italy, Japan;
    Allied Powers– Britain, France, China, U.S., USSR
    •*Battle of Stalingrad – seen as wars turning point for allied victory

  • Propaganda

    – motivate U.S. citizens to support war efforts

  • – Manhattan Project–

    creation of the Atomic Bomb

  • Battle of Midway – U.S. defeats Japan, seen as turning point in the war in the Pacific

  • Interment of Japanese Americans

    imprisonment of Japanese in California

  • Allies invade Normandy, France on D-DAY, June 6, 1944 (largest land/sea invasion)

  • Battle of the Bulge

    – begins to break down Axis position on western front

  • Allies liberate Nazi concentration camps in Eastern Europe

  • FDR dies, Harry Truman becomes President; Adolf Hitler commits suicide

  • Germany surrenders on V-E-DAY(victory in Europe day)

  • U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki (Aug 9) – Japan surrender

  • United Nations created with 51 founding nations

  • Nuremberg Trials –

    prosecute Nazi war criminals Baby Boom, Economic Prosperity, and

  • – “Iron Curtain” –

    describes division of Communist Eastern Europe from Western Europe
  • Period: to

    The Cold War

    •* Soviet Union emerges as only major U.S. rival, creating intense, prolonged standoff between superpowers, known as the Cold War

  • – Truman Doctrine

    – U.S. intent to fight Communism by helping free nations resist it.

  • – Marshal Plan –

    postwar economic recovery to help Western Europe; largest relief aid given by the U.S. in U.S. history

  • Berlin Blockade

    – USSR blocks all aid into West Berlin; Berlin Airlift – U.S. drops food and supplies by air to West Berlin

  • Berlin Blockade

    – USSR blocks all aid into West Berlin; Berlin Airlift – U.S. drops food and supplies by air to West Berlin

  • –Harry Truman orders desegregation of military

  • NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) created –

    –alliance system of 26 countries in North America and Europe

  • Alger Hiss convicted of perjury

    – 1991 Soviet documents confirm their guilt!

  • Korean war begins ; U.S. aids South Korea against North Korea; Peace Treaty in 1953

  • – Joseph McCarthy

    – begins rabid anti-communist campaign; hurt when he accuses military of having communists; alcoholic

  • – Communist Fear in U.S.

    Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for espionage;

  • * Brown vs. Board of Education – overturns Plessy vs. Ferguson; says separate but equal is unconstitutional

  • “Containment”-(Truman) must stop spread of all communism; “Domino Theory” (Eisenhower) – fears that Indochina must not go communist or it will spread all over the world

  • - Geneva Peace Accords

    – temporally divides Vietnam at 17th parallel

  • – Rosa Parks arrested for not giving up seat on bus to whites; sparks Montgomery Bus Boycott

  • – Jonas Salk

    – creates polio vaccine

  • USSR launches first satellite in space – Sputnik

  • 1st televised Presidential debate

    – JFK vs. Nixon (JFK wins); JFK president 1960

  • –JFK launches New Frontier platform to help America

  • –Lunch Counter “Sit-Ins” spark waves of civil rights protest; SCLC created by MLK, Jr.

  • Bay of Pigs

    – failed invasion of Cuba by U.S. (CIA) trained military
  • Period: to

    Civil Rights, Nixon, and Vietnam

  • – Berlin Wall

    – divides East and West Berlin (East was communist)

  • - Cuban Missile Crisis– standoff b/n U.S. and USSR after Soviets placed missiles in Cuba pointed at the United States; no fighting incurs

  • – “I have a dream” speech given by MLK – speech for civil rights

  • – Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates JFK in Dallas, TX

  • Lyndon Johnson President

    – launches “Great Society” program to end poverty and racism

  • – Civil Rights Act of 1964 –

    bans discrimination in education, employment, & public places

  • – Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    – broadens LBJ’s military powers in Vietnam – no declare war

  • – Voting Rights Act of 1965–

    bans literacy tests for voting

  • – Malcom X (Nation of Islam)

    – blamed whites for African American problems; assassinated

  • –Miranda vs. Arizona

    • police must read suspects their rights

  • Thurgood Marshall –

    first black justice of the Supreme Court

  • Tet Offensive launched by North Vietnamese Army

    – turning point of U.S. in Vietnam

  • James Earl Ray assassinated MLK, Jr.

    – hurts Civil Rights movement

  • – Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Robert Kennedy, JFK’s brother; Richard Nixon voted President

  • – Apollo 11 lands on the moon, Neil Armstrong first to walk on moon

  • – My Lai Massacre

    – U.S. soldiers kill 200 innocent men, women, and children

  • –Pentagon Papers– 7,000 page document outlining U.S. government plan in Vietnam; shows gov’t was not telling truth to public.

  • – Watergate Scandal– Nixon authorizes break-in and wiretapping of Democratic National Committee headquarters in Watergate complex in Washington, D.C

  • – Roe vs. Wade

    – legalizes abortion (up to 3 months)

  • – U.S. Energy Crisis

    – fuel shortage in U.S. due to OPEC raising prices

  • – U.S. withdraws from Vietnam; North Vietnam overtakes South after departure

  • Richard Nixon resigns to avoid impeachment; Gerald Ford President –

    pardons Nixon; Ford is only President never voted into office.

  • Jimmy Carter elected President

  • Camp David Accords

    – Carter negotiates peace between Egypt and Israel

  • Three Mile Island

    – nuclear power accident causes concern of nuclear safety

  • Ronald Reagan elected 40th President

  • – Iran releases U.S. embassy hostages released after 444 days in captivity.

  • – Strategic Defense Initiative (a.k.a. STAR WARS)

    – space based missile defense proposed

  • – Space Shuttle Challenger explodes on takeoff, crew killed; space program never the same

  • – U.S. bombs Libya for supporting Palestinians

  • Osama Bin Laden founds Islamist group Al Qaeda

  • Berlin Wall falls (Reagan feels its U.S.’s great est accomplishment of the era)

  • Saddam Hussein orders invasion of Kuwait; starts Operation Desert Storm

  • Bill Clinton President; appoints Janet Reno first female attorney genera