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DATE
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EVENT
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SIGNIFICANCE
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RELATED EVENTS
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1607
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settlement of Jamestown
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First permanent English colony in North America
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Defeat of the Spanish Armada, House of Burgesses, Northern, Middle and Southern colonies, Mayflower Compact, Plymouth, Puritan Dilemma, Town Hall meetings, tobacco, indentured servants, slavery
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1763
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Treaty of Paris (end of French and Indian War), Pontiac’s Uprising
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France is temporarily banished from North America, colonists saw fallibility of “redcoats,” both colonists and British thought the other “owed” them
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Navigation Laws, Albany Plan, Washington as hero, Sugar Quartering, Stamp, Declaratory Townshend, Tea Acts;
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1776
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Declaration of American Independence, Revolutionary War
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first assertion of independence by colonies against mother nation
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Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, Lexington and Concord, Patriots v. Loyalists, Founding Fathers, Continental Congress, French help, Articles of Confederation
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1789
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Ratification of Constitution
Judiciary Act of 1789
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Replacement of the Articles of Confederation, stronger central government,
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Bill of Rights, French Revolution, funding at par, Federalists and Anti-Federalists (Hamilton v. Jefferson), Whiskey Rebellion, Bank of US
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1800
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Jefferson's election ("Revolution of 1800")
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peaceful transition of power, end of Federalist rule (except in the courts)
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Alien and Sedition Acts midnight judges, more agrarian interests, Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
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1803
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Louisiana Purchase, Marbury v. Madison
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major extension of presidential power, US doubled its size.
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Marbury v. Madison(judicial review), Lewis and Clark, British impressment,
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1812
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War of 1812
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America fights for respect, ushers in an era of nationalism and westward expansion
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Embargo Act, Macon’s Bill #2, Napoleon, Hartford convention, war hawks & western farmers vs. eastern establishment, DC burned, New Orleans, Monroe Doctrine, Ghent Treaty,
Era of Good Feelings
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1820
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Missouri Compromise
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First of a series of compromises over the issue
of slavery.
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Sectionalism, Compromise of 1850, Kansas Nebraska Act, "Bleeding Kansas"
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1828
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Andrew Jackson elected President
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Rise of politics of the common man, electoral power shifts to west of Appalachian Mountains
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National conventions, Universal manhood suffrage, Maysville Road veto, Eaton affair, Tariff of Abominations (1828), Tariff of 1832, Force Bill, Biddle, Bank War, Specie Circular
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1848
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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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end of Mexican American war
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Manifest Destiny, Gold rush, Gadsden Purchase, Free Soil Party, social reform movements, transcendentalism, temperance, Seneca Falls, sectionalism over slavery
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1861
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Outbreak of the Civil War
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America goes to war with itself over slavery and the meaning of federalism
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Uncle Tom's Cabin, Bully Brooks, Dred Scott, Harper’s Ferry, Formation of the Confederacy, failure of Crittenden Compromise, Lincoln reprovisions Fort Sumter, border states, Antietam, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg,
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1865
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end of Civil War,
beginning of Reconstruction
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affirmation of national government over states' rights.
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Assassination of Lincoln, 13th-15th amendments, Johnson's Impeachment, Radical Republicans (Sumner and Stevens) Military Reconstruction Act
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1877
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end of Reconstruction, Hayes Tilden Compromise, start of the Gilded Age
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wounds of civil war healing, new era of industrialization and “robber barons”
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Compromise of 1877 that allowed Hayes to be pres, Pullman strike, AFL
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1890
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Census declares there is no longer a discernable frontier line
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West has been settled, new emphasis on development of West rather than exploration or settlement, psychological change in American thinking
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Turner thesis, Homestead Act, Transcontinental RRs, Dawes Severalty Act, Populists, H.H. Jackson’s-Century of Dishonor
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1896
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McKinley defeats William. Jennings Bryan
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Populist Party absorbed into Democrats, Big Business assumes control over the political process, end of western domination of politics
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Trusts and Pools, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Hanna, The Grange, Farmer's Alliances, Cross of Gold Speech, Slums, Tenements, plight of the urban worker, The Jungle,How The Other Half Lives,Muckrakers, Roosevelt,Elections of 1900 and 1912
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1917
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US entry into World War I
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US tries to be neutral- Neutrality Acts
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Wilsonian Idealism,
14 Points, Unrestricted sub warfare, Lusitania, Sussex, Arms manufacturers, League of Nations, Treaty of Versailles, Senate refusal
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1929
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Stock Market Crash,
Great Depression
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Most significant economic downturn in US history
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Hawley Smoot Tariff, Rugged Individualism, Hoovervilles, Bonus Army March, Rise of totalitarianism in Europe, Election of 1932, New Deal
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1941
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Bombing of Pearl Harbor
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America enters World War II
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Neutrality acts 1936-39, Lend Lease Act, Atlantic Charter, "Europe First," “island hopping,” D-Day
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1945
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End of World War II,
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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America positioned as sole superpower.
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Potsdam and Yalta Conferences, Death of Roosevelt, Cold War, Truman Doctrine, NATO, Berlin Crises,
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1954
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French defeated in Vietnam,
Brown vs. the Board of Education, CIA-sponsored coup in Guatemala
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Prolonged military commitment in Southeast Asia, debacle in Vietnam
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Containment, Fall of China, McCarthyism, “massive retaliation,” Korean War (1950-1953), Rosa Parks Little Rock crises, “Flexible Response,” New Frontier
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1964
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Tonkin Gulf Resolution, “War on Poverty” programs, Civil Rights Act of '64,
24th amendment (no poll tax)
“Freedom Summer” voter registration in the South
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Continuation of New Deal philosophy and welfare state politics, escalation of Vietnam involvement
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MLK and integrationists, Malcolm X and Black Panthers (separatists), growth of the suburbs, white flight, Medicare, Food stamps
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1968
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Tet Offensive, assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., Democratic convention, urban riots, Election of 1968
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American support for Vietnam and containment erodes. White backlash to Civil Rights and other changes
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rise of the counterculture and anti-war movement, Vietnamization, moon landing, urban riots, silent majority
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1974
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Watergate scandal
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First president to resign the office, Americans become disillusioned with politics
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Agnew’s resignation, War Powers Act, high inflation and unemployment oil embargo, New Federalism,
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1989
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Eastern Europe throws off communist regimes,
Fall of the Berlin Wall,
“New World Order”
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End of the Cold War, America once again emerges as the sole superpower.
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Solidarity Movement (Poland) Tianamen Square (China), Persian Gulf War, Bush, Clinton, weakening of Roe v. Wade, LA riots
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