-
Period: 1450 to
US History Timeline
US History events -
1492
The Discovery of America by Columbus
Christopher Columbus Discovers America, 1492. Columbus led his three ships - the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria - out of the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492. His objective was to sail west until he reached Asia where the riches of gold, pearls and spice awaited. -
The Settlement of Jamestown
the first settlement of the new Americas, Founded in 1607 -
The French and Indian War
the French and Indian War comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756–63. It pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France. Both sides were supported by military units from their parent countries, as well as by American Indian allies -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. -
The Battle of Lexington
The Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19, 1775, kicked off the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts. -
The Declaration of Independence
Created by Thomas Jefferson on July 4 1776 to declare independence from Britain -
The Siege of Yorktown
1781 the Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the Surrender at Yorktown, German Battle or the Siege of Little York, ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown -
The Constitutional Convention
1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia met between May and to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation. -
The Invention of the cotton gin
In 1794, U.S.-born inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber -
The Alien and Sedition Acts
A series of laws known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by the Federalist Congress in 1798 and signed into law by President Adams. These laws included new powers to deport foreigners as well as making it harder for new immigrants to vote. -
The Louisiana Purchase
1803 The Louisiana Purchase was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. -
the war of 1812
1812 The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States, the United Kingdom, and their respective allies from June 1812 to February 1815. -
The Missouri Compromise
1819 The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free -
Andrew Jackson's Election
1828 The United States presidential election of 1828 was the 11th quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, October 31, to Tuesday, December 2, 1828 -
The Invention of the telegraph
1830 Developed in the 1830's and 1840's by Samuel Morse and other inventors, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. -
The Trail of tears
The Trail of Tears was a series of forced relocations of Native American peoples from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States, to areas to the west that had been designated as Indian Territory. -
The Mexican American War
1846 The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the American intervention in Mexico, was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848 -
Seneca Falls Convention
1848 The Seneca Falls Convention was the first woman's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman". -
The Compromise of 1850
As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. -
The Firing on Fort Sumter
1861 The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the Confederate States Army, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army, that started the American Civil War. -
The completion of the transcontinental railroad
1869 Utah, signaling the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. The transcontinental railroad had long been a dream for people living in the American West. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
1863 It changed the federal legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the designated areas of the South from slave to free. -
Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
1865 The Appomattox Campaign was a series of American Civil War battles fought March 29 – April 9, 1865 in Virginia that concluded with the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army -
Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
1865 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through the American Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. -
Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment
1868 The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson occurred in 1868, when the United States House of Representatives resolved to impeach President Andrew Johnson, adopting eleven articles of impeachment -
13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
1870 were the first amendments made to the U.S. constitution in 60 years. Known collectively as the Civil War Amendments, they were designed to ensure the equality -
The Organization of Standard Oil Trust
1870 the company was renamed Standard Oil Company, after which Rockefeller decided to buy up all the other competition and form them into one large company. -
The invention of the Telephone
The telephone was created by Alexander graham bell in 1876. He was awarded the first U.S. Patent for the invention -
The invention of the electric light
electric light bulb, invented by Thomas Alva Edison in 1879 and patented on January 27, 1880. -
The Pullman and Homestead Strikes
1892 culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents -
The Spanish-American War
1898 The Spanish–American War was fought between the United States and Spain in 1898. -
Theodore Roosevelt becomes president
1909 Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was an American statesman and writer who served as the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. -
The invention of the Airplane
In 1903 the Wright brothers achieved the first powered, sustained and controlled airplane flight
