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Oct 12, 1492
The Discovery of America by Columbus
Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) is credited with discovering the Americas in 1492 -
The Settlement of Jamestown
Jamestown, also Jamestowne, was the first settlement of the Virginia Colony, founded in 1607, and served as the capital of Virginia until 1699, when the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg. -
The French and Indian War
May 28, 1754 – Feb 10, 1763
The French and Indian War was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. -
The French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes.
Dates: May 28, 1754 – Feb 10, 1763 -
The Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts -
The Battle of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord was the first major military campaign of the American Revolutionary War, resulting in an American victory and outpouring of militia support for the anti-British cause -
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, formally titled The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America in both the engrossed version and the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. -
The Battle of Yorktown
September 28 – October 19, 1781
The siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown and the surrender at Yorktown, began September 28, 1781, and ended on October 19, 1781, at exactly 10:30 am in Yorktown, Virginia. -
The Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention, also known as the Philadelphia Convention, the Federal Convention, or the Grand Convention at Philadelphia, was a meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from May 14 to September 17, 1787. The convention's purpose was to address the issues that arose while the newly-independent United States operated under the Articles of Confederation after separating from Great Britain. -
The Invention of the Cotton Gin
A modern mechanical cotton gin was created by American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793 and patented in 1794. Whitney's gin used a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through, while brushes continuously removed the loose cotton lint to prevent jams. -
The Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were a set of four laws passed by Congress in 1798 that restricted immigration and speech in the United States. -
The Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River's drainage basin west of the river. -
The War of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States declared war on Britain on 18 June 1812. -
The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was a law passed by Congress in 1820 to temporarily settle a national debate over slavery in new states. The compromise was proposed by Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky in response to the purchase of the Louisiana Territory and Missouri's application for statehood, which would have changed the balance of slave and free states in the country. -
Andrew Jackson’s Election
Jackson decisively won the election, carrying 55.5% of the popular vote and 178 electoral votes, to Adams' 83. The election marked the rise of Jacksonian Democracy and the transition from the First Party System to the Second Party System. -
The Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that began a major depression, which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages dropped, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment rose, and pessimism abounded. The panic had both domestic and foreign origins -
The Invention of the Telegraph
Samuel F.B. Morse (born April 27, 1791, Charlestown, Massachusetts, U.S.—died April 2, 1872, New York, New York) was an American painter and inventor who developed an electric telegraph (1832–35). In 1838 he and his friend Alfred Vail developed the Morse Code -
The Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the "Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850, and the additional thousands of Native Americans within that were ethnically cleansed by the United States government. -
The Mexican-American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, was an invasion of Mexico by the United States Army from 1846 to 1848. -
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of five bills passed by Congress in September 1850 to address slavery-related issues and preserve the Union -
The Firing on Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the South Carolina militia. It ended with its surrender by the United States Army, beginning the American Civil War. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. -
Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
13th Amendment: December 6, 1865
14th Amendment: July 9, 1868
15th Amendment: February 3, 1870 -
Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought in Appomattox County, Virginia, on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last battles of the American Civil War. -
Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment
February 24, 1868 (impeachment vote);
May 16, 1868 (acquittal) -
The Invention of the Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call from a downtown Boston laboratory on this day in history, March 10, 1876. "Mr. Watson, come here — I want to see you," Bell wrote in his own account of the first words transmitted via the new technology -
The Invention of the Electric Light
Thomas Edison’s first practical light bulb: October 22, 1879 -
The Organization of Standard Oil Trust
The trust was born on January 2, 1882, when a group of 41 investors signed the Standard Oil Trust Agreement, which pooled their securities of 40 companies into a single holding agency managed by nine trustees. The original trust was valued at $70 million. -
The Pullman and Homestead Strikes
Pullman Strike: May 11 – July 20, 1894
Homestead Strike: July 6 – November 20, 1892 -
The Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence.
April 21 – August 13, 1898 -
Theodore Roosevelt Becomes President
September 14, 1901 (following the assassination of William McKinley) -
The Invention of the Airplane
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, are widely credited with inventing the airplane. On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright made the first successful powered flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft, the Wright Flyer, at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The flight lasted 12 seconds, covered 120 feet, and reached a top speed of 6.8 miles per hour.