US History A Timeline

  • Period: 1492 to 1504

    Discovery of America by Columbus

  • Settlement of Jamestown

    The first permanent settlement in the Americas.
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    French and Indian War

    Began due to disagreements on whether the Ohio River valley belonged to the British Empire or the French Empire.
  • Boston Tea Party

    An act of protest against Britain's taxation.
  • Battle of Lexington and Concord

    The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the Revolutionary War.
  • Declaration of Independence

    Declaration of Independence
    Gained American citizens their freedom from Britain.
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    Battle of Yorktown

    The Battle of Yorktown "virtually ended military operations in the American Revolution."
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    Constitutional Convention

    The point of the Constitutional Convention was to determine how America would be governed.
  • Invention of Cotton Gin

  • Alien and Sedition Acts

    The Alien and Sedition Acts "raised the residency requirements for citizenship from 5 to 14 years, authorized the President to deport aliens, and permitted their arrest, imprisonment, and deportation during wartime."
  • Invention of Electric Light

  • Louisiana Purchase

    America purchased 827,000 sqaure miles from France for $15,000,000.
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    War of 1812

    "Fought between the United States and Great Britain over British violations of U.S. maritime rights."
  • Missouri Compromise

    Allowed Missouri admission as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
  • Andrew Jackson Election

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    Trail of Tears

  • Panic of 1837

    The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that started a major depression that lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down while unemployment went up.
  • Invention of Telegraph

    Allowed for cross-country communication among citizens.
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    Mexican-American War

    Caused by the annexation of Texas.
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    Compromise of 1850

    Allowed California to become a state.
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    Firing on Fort Sumter

    The bombardment of Fort Sumter which prompted the Civil War.
  • Emancipation Proclamation

    Abraham Lincoln declared slaves free.
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    13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments

    Illegalized slavery, declared anyone born on U.S. soil a citizen, and illegalized denial of voting by race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
  • Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse

    "Trapped by the Federals near Appomattox Court House, Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the Civil War."
  • Abraham Lincoln's Assassination

  • Andrew Johnson's Impeachment

  • Organization of Standard Oil Trust

    "Used a complicated organizational structure in his new company that allowed local and cross-country communication."
  • Invention of Telephone

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    Pullman and Homestead Strikes

    Work stoppage caused by employees who refuse to work.
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    Spanish-American War

    America's support for the ongoing struggle by Cubans and Filipinos against Spanish rule, and the mysterious explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor.
  • Theodore Roosevelt Becomes President

  • Invention of Airplane