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The Battles of Lexington and Concord, which took place on April 19, 1775, were the first military confrontations of the American Revolutionary War. British soldiers marched to seize colonial arms in Concord but were met by militia at Lexington, where a confrontation resulted in shots fired and deaths. The fighting continued to Concord and then along the British retreat route to Boston, marking a pivotal moment that rallied American colonists to the cause of independence and ignited the war. -
The winter encampment of the Continental Army at Valley Forge (1777-1778) was a period of intense hardship for George Washington's troops, marked by starvation, disease, lack of supplies, and exposure to the elements. -
Benedict Arnold turned traitor in 1779 by beginning secret negotiations with the British, which culminated in his plot to surrender the American stronghold of West Point to the enemy in 1780. This betrayal was motivated by feelings of being unrecognized, financial debt, and the desire for a more prominent position and money from the British army. -
The Battle of Cowpens, fought on January 17, 1781, was a decisive American victory in the Southern Campaign of the American Revolutionary War, where Patriot forces led by Brigadier General Daniel Morgan decisively defeated a major British force under Banastre Tarleton. -
On August 19, 1812, USS Constitution met and defeated HMS Guerriere, a 38-gun British frigate under the command of Captain James Richard Dacres. While relatively inconsequential in strategic terms for the War of 1812, the stunning victory provided a much needed morale boost for the American public. -
The Battle of Baltimore was a pivotal battle of the War of 1812, fought from September 12–14, 1814, during which American forces successfully repelled a British invasion of the port city of Baltimore, Maryland. -
The Battle of New Orleans was the final, decisive American victory of the War of 1812, fought on January 8, 1815, at Chalmette, Louisiana. Under Major General Andrew Jackson, the outnumbered American forces repelled a much larger British Army, inflicting over 2,000 casualties to their own fewer than 100. -
The Battle of the Alamo was a 13-day siege in San Antonio, Texas, from February 23 to March 6, 1836, during the Texas Revolution. Mexican forces, led by General Antonio López de Santa Anna, reclaimed the Alamo Mission after overwhelming the Texian defenders, resulting in the deaths of all the defenders. -
Mexico lost California, New Mexico, Arizona, and other territories to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, which officially ended the Mexican-American War. In this treaty, Mexico ceded about 55% of its territory to the U.S., including present-day California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and most of Colorado. -
Charleston Mercury on November 3, 1860. South Carolina became the first state to secede from the federal Union on December 20, 1860. The victory of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election triggered cries for disunion across the slaveholding South. -
On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected as the first Republican president. His victory was entirely due to his support in the North and West. No ballots were cast for him in 10 of the 15 Southern slave states. -
The First Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas, was the first major land battle of the American Civil War, fought on July 21, 1861, in Virginia. A Confederate victory, the battle was notable for its disorganized retreat by the Union army, a chaotic scene witnessed by civilians with picnic baskets -
The Battle of Gettysburg was a pivotal three-day Civil War battle fought from July 1-3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, resulting in a decisive Union victory and ending Confederate General Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North. -
The surrender at Appomattox Court House was a military surrender of an army which was surrounded. -
The USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, due to an internal explosion, likely from a coal bunker fire, not a mine as initially believed by many Americans. The disaster killed nearly three-quarters of the crew and was a catalyst for the Spanish-American War, which began in April 1898, leading the U.S. to gain control of territories from Spain -
The main conflict in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War was the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, where U.S. Commodore George Dewey's fleet destroyed the Spanish Pacific Squadron, leading to the fall of the Philippines to the United States. This event marked a decisive American victory and the end of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines. -
"The Star-Spangled Banner" became the U.S. national anthem after President Herbert Hoover signed a law on March 3, 1931, following years of advocacy and earlier recognition. The song was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 after witnessing the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, and it gained popularity over time, becoming an unofficial national anthem before its formal adoption.