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Founding of Jamestown, Va.
first permanent English colony -
Pilgrims at Plymouth
Beginning at permanent settlement of New England -
Pilgrim Code of Law
The Pilgrim Code of Law was the first covenant with many basic elements of a constitution. -
French and Indian War
Britain ends French presence in the colonies -
Boston Tea Party
Incident in which 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company were thrown from ships into Boston Harbor by American patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians. -
Revolutionary War
U.S. wins independence from Britain -
First U.S. Currency issued
The Continental Congress issued paper money, known as “continentals.” -
Declaration of Independence
The centrality of the Declaration of Independence to the developments of the 1770s is self-evident. -
The Treasury System was reorganized
On September 26, the Continental Congress created an Auditor, Office of Comptroller, Office of Treasurer and two Chambers of Accounts. A committee was also selected to design the Seal of the Treasury. -
Articles of Confederation
First U.S. constitution (1781–89), which served as a bridge between the initial government by the Continental Congress of the Revolutionary period and the federal government provided under the U.S. Constitution of 1787. -
Constitution of the United States of America
With the war won, independence secured, and the Articles of Confederation proving inadequate, The Founding Fathers laid down the law by which the new country would be governed in the elegantly crafted Constitution. -
Federalist Papers
Published under the penname “Publius,” the Federalist Papers comprise 85 essays authored by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, to persuade New York citizens to support the Constitution’s ratification. -
Federal Judiciary Act
the Federal Judiciary Act established the structure and jurisdiction of federal courts, matters that Article III of the United States Constitution left unaddressed. -
Bill of Rights
On September 25, Congress agreed upon the 12 amendments, and they were sent to the states for approval. -
Whiskey Rebellion
As the new country began finding its feet, U.S. Pres. George Washington sent troops to western Pennsylvania in 1794 to quell the Whiskey Rebellion, an uprising by citizens who refused to pay a liquor tax that had been imposed by Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton to raise money for the national debt and to assert the power of the national government. -
11th Amendment
A federal sovereign immunity case. -
President Washington’s Farewell Address
After refusing to consider the presidency for a third term, George Washington prepared and delivered a handwritten farewell speech to the American people. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Territory, the huge swath of land that made up the western Mississippi basin, passed from French colonial rule to Spanish colonial rule and then back to the French before U.S. Pres. -
12th Amendment
Provided for separate Electoral College votes for President and Vice President, correcting weaknesses in the earlier electoral system which were responsible for the controversial Presidential Election of 1800. -
Battle of New Orleans
On January 8, 1815, a ragtag army under the command of Andrew Jackson decisively defeated British forces in the Battle of New Orleans, even though the War of 1812 had actually already ended. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Era of Good Feelings, a period of American prosperity and isolationism, was in full swing when U.S. Pres. James Monroe articulated a set of principles in 1823 that decades later would be called the Monroe Doctrine. -
Era of the Common Man
Andrew Jackson, the U.S. president from 1829–37, was said to have ushered in the Era of the Common Man. -
Oregon Treaty
President James K. Polk signed the treaty with Great Britain, gaining territory in the northwest that would become the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming and Montana. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Signed on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo brought to a close the Mexican-American War and seemingly fulfilled the Manifest Destiny of the United States championed by Pres. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
With the defeat of Mexico, the United States gained California and southwest territories -
Compromise of 1850
Congressional compromise with provisions that included that California was admitted as a free state with its current boundaries, territories in the new Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory could decide on slavery through popular sovereignty, and the slave trade was banned in Washington, DC. -
Dred Scott Decision
Signed on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo brought to a close the Mexican-American War and seemingly fulfilled the Manifest Destiny of the United States championed by Pres. -
Government Printing Office created
Congress established the office to print government publications. -
Morrill Act
The federal government allotted land to township for public schools in the first case of public aid to education. -
Battle of Gettysburg
In July 1863, the year of the Emancipation Proclamation, in the small Pennsylvania crossroads town of Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee’s invading Army of Northern Virginia sustained a defeat so devastating that it sealed the fate of the Confederacy and its “peculiar institution.” -
National Banking Act
The act allowed nationally chartered banks that could circulate notes backed by U.S. government securities, in effect establishing a national currency. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln proclaimed the freedom of slaves in areas still in rebellion. -
13th Amendment
Abolished slavery in the United States. -
14th Amendment
granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including formerly enslaved people. -
15th Amendment
granted African American men the right to vote. -
Official Records of the Rebellion
Compilation started by historians under the Secretary of War -
Battle of the Little Bighorn
While the country celebrated its anniversary at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, on June 25, 1876, the 7th Cavalry under the command of Col. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
On May 6, 1882, a 10-year suspension of immigration of Chinese laborers, and Chinese not allowed to become citizens -
Haymarket Riot
The wealth-concentrating practices of the “robber barons” who oversaw the burst of industrial activity and corporate growth during the Gilded Age of the late 19th century was countered by the rise of organized labor led by the Knights of Labor. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
Outlawed practices deemed monopolistic and thus harmful to consumers and the market economy. -
Evarts Act
Gave the U.S. courts of appeals jurisdiction over the great majority of appeals from the U.S. district and circuit courts -
Plessy v. Freguson
With the end of Reconstruction in the 1870s, the enactment of Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the South. In its 7–1 decision in the Plessy v. Ferguson case -
Breakup of northern Securities
In 1902 U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt pursued the Progressive goal of curbing the enormous economic and political power of the giant corporate trusts by resurrecting the nearly defunct Sherman Antitrust Act to bring a lawsuit that led to the breakup of a huge railroad conglomerate. -
17th Amendment
Modified Article I, Section 3, of the Constitution by allowing voters to cast direct votes for U.S. senators -
16th Amendment
established Congress's right to impose a Federal income tax. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
As World War I raged in Europe, most Americans, including U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson, remained determined to avoid involvement and committed to neutrality, though the U.S. economy had benefited greatly from supplying food, raw material, and guns and ammunition to the Allies. -
18th Amendment
prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” -
19th Amendment
the passage of the 19th Amendment was the result of decades of work by tens of thousands across the country who worked for change. -
Stock Market Crash
“The chief business of the American people is business,” U.S. Pres. Calvin Coolidge said in 1925. And with the American economy humming during the “Roaring Twenties” -
FDR's First Fireside Chat
In 1933 at least one-fourth of the U.S. workforce was unemployed when the administration of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt first took on the ravages of the Great Depression with the New Deal. -
20th Amendment
to remove the excessively long period of time a defeated president or member of Congress would continue to serve after his or her failed bid for reelection. -
The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Having again stayed out of the initial stages of another worldwide conflict, the U.S. entered World War II on the side of the Allies following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor -
22nd Amendment
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. -
U.S. Army-McCarthy
With the Cold War as a backdrop, U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy gave his name to an era by fanning the flames of anti-communist hysteria with sensational but unproven charges of communist subversion in high government circles. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr
At the center of the widespread social and political upheaval of the 1960s were the civil rights movement, opposition to the Vietnam War, the emergence of youth-oriented counterculture, and the establishment and reactionary elements that pushed back against change. -
Watergate Scandal
On August 9, 1974—facing likely impeachment for his role in covering up the scandal surrounding the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., in June 1972 -
PATCO Strike
U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan’s triumph over the strike by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization in August 1981 played a pivotal role in the long-term weakening of the power of labor unions and helped set the tenor for his administration. -
The Monica Lewinsky Affair
Having failed to push through a number of high-profile policy initiatives early in his first term as president and confronted with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress after the 1994 midterm election. -
September 11 Attacks
Although terrorist attacks had been directed at the United States at the end of the 20th century, a new sense of vulnerability was introduced into American life on September 11, 2001, when Islamist terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in New York City. -
Election of Donald Trump
Since at least the 1980s, the U.S. had been politically polarized by so-called culture wars that symbolically divided the country into Republican-dominated red states and Democrat-dominated blue states