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Aug 1, 1492
Columbus Lands in the Americas
Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, was given funds through the King and Queen of Spain- Ferdinand and Isabella- to set sail across the Atlantic. The purpose of his exploration was to sail to the East Indies. Instead he stumbled upon land that was undocumented in the Eastern portion of the world. This land would acquire the name "America". -
Jamestown
A joint venture, called the Virginia Company, carried roughly 100 members overseas to the East Coast in North America. The Virginia Company founded the first permanent English town in North America near the James River. Famine and disease struck the settlement due to new exposure of different germs and people- Native American tribes. Jamestown was failing up until a new group of settlers arrived in 1610 and planted the first Tobacco plant. Tobacco became profitable all over Virginia. -
Pilgrims Land
The Pilgrims were English citizens among the Mayflower voyage of 1620 that set sail from England to North America in September. The ship reached North American soil on November 11th, 1620 in present day Massachusetts. The Pilgrims on the Mayflower were mainly people seeking religious freedom, and a new found sense of stability. -
French and Indian War
In the expanding territories of North America, imperial competition became prominent between major European powers. Conflict struck between Britain and France when France expanded into the Ohio River valley. Following a series of battles, the British then declared war against France in 1756. This war is also known as the 7 Years War and was a war centered around the need for power dominance in new lands. -
Townshend Acts
Charles Townshend of the English Parliament introduced the idea of putting taxes on more common utilities being sent to the colonies. The Townshend Acts led to a tax on glass, lead, paints, paper and tea imported into the colonies. Americans viewed the taxes as an abuse of power, leading to a limitation on imported goods from Britain. In 1770, Parliament repealed all the Townshend duties except the tax on tea. -
Boston Tea Party
The American colonies would not go down with out a fight. Continuously fed up with the British, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty decided to push their limits. The men dressed up as Native Americans, boarded three ships in the Boston Harbor and threw 342 boxes of tea overboard. This protest in the Boston Harbor led to the Coercive Acts in 1774 and pushed the colonies and Britain closer to war. -
Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord took place on April 19th, 1775, and kicked off the American Revolutionary War with the "shot heard around the world". Before Lexington and Concord, tensions were high between the citizens of the 13 American colonies and the British army/British authorities. The night before the battles began, British troops marched to Concord in to seize colonial militiamen, but they were warned of the troops by Paul Revere during the night and were ready to fight. -
The U.S. Declaration of Independence
The movement for independence from Britain had grown. By mid-June 1776, a committee including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin was given the task to draft a formal statement of the colonies’ intentions. This statement was adopted by Congress as the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4, a date now celebrated as the birth of American independence. The Declaration was signed by men risking their lives for a future they believed in. Many died for the cause. -
The Constitutional Convention
The Constitutional Convention was set in the old Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It involved a 3 month period of debate from May 25th - September 17, 1787. During the 3 month debate delegates devised a federal system characterized by a system of checks and balances. The convention was divided over the issue of state representation in Congress; more populated states wanted proportional legislation, and smaller states wanted equal representation. -
George Washington; first U.S. President
George Washington was commander in chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and served two terms as the first U.S. president, from 1789 to 1797. During the American Revolution, he led the colonial forces to victory against the British and became a national hero. In 1787, he was elected president of the convention that wrote the U.S. Constitution. Two years later, Washington became America’s first president. -
Jefferson Presidency
Thomas Jefferson was the third U.S. president,and a leading figure in America’s developmental stages. Jefferson was elected president in 1800. During his time as president from 1801-1809, the U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory and Lewis and Clark explored the vast new acquisition. Jefferson promoted liberty like all of the men he shared political platforms with during the early stages of America, but was, ironically, a slaveowner. -
The Louisiana Purchase
The United States- under the ruling of Thomas Jefferson- purchased roughly 828,000,000 square miles of North American territory from France, which led to the U.S. doubling in size. The Louisiana Territory stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Canadian border in the north. This is considered one of the most important achievements of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. -
The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was passed by Congress on May 8th, 1820 in order to preserve balance of power between slave and non-slave states. It consisted of an agreement to divide the country on the 'Mason- Dixon Line' into a region of slave states and a region of free states. Missouri was the compromise as it would be a state where people could choose to own slaves or choose to not own human beings. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy that opposed European colonialism in the Americas. President Monroe used his annual message to Congress: ‘The American continents … are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.’ As well as other statements such as Washington’s Farewell Address and Hay’s Open Door notes on China. The Monroe Doctrine became an important part of American foreign policy, with help from John Quincy Adams. -
Jackson Presidency
Jackson was the nation’s seventh president between 1829-1837, after beating Adams in the election. Jackson became the leader of the Democratic Party; a supporter of states’ rights and slavery’s extension into the new western territories. Jackson's presidency, for many people, is considered to be tarnished because of the role he played in the relocation of Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi. -
Indian Removal Act
Signed by President Jackson on May 28th, 1830; the act was created to 'negotiate' with Native American tribes over their removal of certain regions east of the Mississippi River. But negotiations soon turned into the forceful and violent removal of Native Americans from what was left of their homeland. The act was put into place for the benefit of white americans in the south, so the whites could have more land and the Natives would be relocated to the west of the Mississippi. -
Dred Scott V. Sanford
The Dred Scott case took place at the Supreme Court in Washington D.C. and was led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. Dred Scott was a slave who had lived in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin before moving back to the slave state of Missouri. He had appealed to the Supreme Court in hopes of gaining his freedom. The ruling of the Court was that blacks- both free and enslaved- are now no longer free nor considered american citizens- permitting slavery all over the U.S.. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
The Attack on Fort Sumter is known as the site that started the Civil War between the Union and the Confederates. Union Major Robert Anderson occupied the fort, located in Charleston South Carolina, following the secession of South Carolina from the Union in 1860. When president Lincoln made plans to resupply the fort, Confederate soldiers attacked Fort Sumter in 1861. After a period of roughly 34 hours, Anderson and 86 Union soldiers surrendered. -
Lincoln Presidency
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. The election of a northerner that was against slavery caused an even larger divide in an already distraught country. Southern states began to secede from the Union, calling themselves the Confederacy. The Civil War resulted from this divide between the nation, lasting through Lincoln's presidency. Lincoln is well known for his effect on the United States today because of the outcome of the Civil War. -
The Civil War: Battle of Bull Run
Union and Confederate armies clashed near Manassas Junction, Virginia, commencing the first major land battle of the Civil War in America. The battle began when roughly 35,000 Union troops marched from Washington, D.C. to hit a Confederate body of roughly 20,000 along the river known as Bull Run. After fighting on the defensive for most of the day, the rebels rallied and were able to break the Union right flank, leading to a Confederate victory. The win gave the South a burst of confidence. -
The Civil War: Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh took place from April 6 to April 7, 1862 in southwestern Tennessee, and was one of the major early engagements of the Civil War. The battle began when the Confederates attacked Union forces by surprise under General Ulysses S. Grant. After initial success, the Confederates were not able to hold themselves, and were forced back, resulting in a Union victory. Both sides suffered heavy losses, with more than 23,000 casualties. -
The Civil War: Battle of Fort Donelson
Union General Ulysses Grant began his assault on Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River, which was a key gateway to the Confederacy. On February 16, after Confederate forces under General John Floyd were unable to break through the Grant's line of men, the Confederates surrendered the fort, resulting in one of the first major victories for the Union that ensured the Kentucky would remain as a part of the Union. -
The Civil War: U.S.S. Monitor battles C.S.S. Virginia
The battle between the Virginia and the Monitor began on the morning of March 9 and went on for four hours. The ships circled each other, struggling for position as they fired at one another. The cannon balls deflected off the iron ships. In the early afternoon, the Virginia pulled back to Norfolk. Neither of the battles ships were damaged in major ways, but this battle led to serious advancements in Naval Warfare, including the reconstruction of ships. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
Shortly after the battle of Antietam that resulted in a Union victory, President Lincoln issued an Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that starting January 1, 1863, all slaves “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not free any slaves, it was a significant turning point in the war, turning it into a fight for human freedom. -
The Civil War: Battle of Antietam
Also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, the Battle of Antietam was a single-day battle that occurred on September 22nd, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The battle was a Confederate attempt to invade the north, under General Robert E. Lee, against Union General George McClellan's Army. It remains the deadliest one-day battle in all American military history, with an estimate of 23,000 casualties. After a long day of battle, the Union claimed victory. The next day, General Lee's army retreated. -
The Civil War: Vicksburg Campaign
Vicksburg was one of the Union’s most successful campaigns of the war, occurring between May and July of 1863, during the Civil War. Union forces waged a campaign to take control away from the Confederates in Vicksburg, Mississippi, near the Mississippi River. The Union's victory and control over Vicksburg divided the Confederacy. This made an impact on the war because this was a major Union victory on southern territory. -
The Civil War: Fort Wagner
Fort Wagner was a beachside Fort located on Morris Island in South Carolina. The Fort was a setting for two civil war battles, in July of 1863. The Second Battle of Fort Wagner was a Union attack led by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry- the first infantry to consist of black soldiers. Although there was a heavier loss of soldiers for the Union during the two battles, the popularity of the 54th Infantry led to further action for black soldiers in the Civil War. -
The Civil War: Battle of Gettysburg
Considered the most important battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, in Gettysburg Pennsylvania was the Northernmost Union Victory since the war began. With the Confederates holding dominance for the fist two days of battle, the tables turned on July 3rd, when General Lee ordered an attack by less than 15,000 troops. The assault, managed to injure the Union lines but eventually failed, with thousands of rebel casualties. Lee was forced to withdraw his army toward Virginia on July 4. -
The Civil War: Shenandoah Valley Campaigns
The Shenandoah Valley Campaigns occurred throughout a series of 5 battles, between May and October, and consisted of Confederate and Union forces trying to gain control of the area. With the Confederates gaining more confidence in their control over the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, Union forces were finally able to get the Confederates to retreat and the Union was able to gain power back over the Shenandoah Valley. No longer allowing the South a discrete way of passage to the North. -
The Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea
From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led roughly 60,000 troops on a march of 285 miles from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose was to frighten Georgia’s civilian population so they would remove themselves from the Confederates. Sherman's March ended with a Union victory due to total war tactics. Union soldiers did not destroy towns in their path, but would steal food and livestock and would burn the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back. -
Thirteenth Amendment Ratified
The Thirteenth Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865 for the purpose of abolishing slavery across the nation in the United States. The amendment was later ratified on December 6th, 1865 due to the end of the Civil War. The amendment states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” -
Surrender at Appomattox
On April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The reason for the surrender was because Lee had abandoned the Confederate Capital of Richmond and Petersburg. -
Assassination of President Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth, a popular actor and Confederate Sympathizer, successfully snuck into Lincoln's theater booth and shot him from behind on the night of April 14th, 1865. The assassination took place inside Ford's Theater located in Washington D.C., just five days after General Lee surrendered his army at the Appomattox Court House. Lincoln was taken out of the theater and passed away due to the infection from the bullet wound the next day. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a law that restricted immigration into the United States for those that were immigrating on the West Coast- especially the Chinese. Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the exclusion act to reduce worker demands and relieve prevalent concerns about maintaining white "racial purity." -
Sherman Antitrust Act
Approved July 2, 1890, The Sherman Antitrust Act was the very first Federal act that outlawed monopoly in business practices, and it prohibited trusts. A trust was an arrangement by which stockholders in several companies transferred their shares to a single set of trustees. The act was named after Senator John Sherman of Ohio; chairman of the Senate finance committee, and Secretary of the Treasury. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
In 1892, an African- American by the name of Homer Plessy boarded a train and refused to sit in the car specifically for blacks only. His argument was that his constitutional rights were being violated. This was taken to the Supreme Court, where the "separate but equal" doctrine was ruled constitutional because rights were technically not being taken away. We know this doctrine as Jim Crow Laws. -
The Spanish American War
The Spanish-American War of 1898 was a conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. Conflict between the Spanish and America began when the Spanish exploded the USS Maine- an American ship- in Havana Harbor in Cuba. -
Theodore Roosevelt Presidency
Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th president of the United States in September 1901, after the assassination of William McKinley. He is most famous for his work in the great “trust buster” for his efforts to break up industrial combinations. He was also a conservationist, conserving national forests, reserves and wildlife. In foreign policy, Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War and started the beginning of construction on the Panama Canal. -
Wilson Presidency
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States from 1913-1921 and led America through World War I. In office, he pursued a rigorous plan for progressive reform that included the establishment of the Federal Reserve and Federal Trade Commission. During WWl, Wilson tried to remain neutral until 1917, when American Citizens were caught in the middle of German conflicts. After WWl, he helped negotiate a peace treaty that included a plan for the League of Nations. -
World War l Begins
Tensions in European nations had been building up for years prior to the first World War. The beginning of World War l started with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The assassination set of a chain of events within Europe, Asia, and the Ottoman Empire, leading to the first World War. -
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a 50 mile long artificial canal that opened in 1914 in Central America. It is a passage that connects the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. The Canal was created for reasons including commercial trade, and to make travel time shorter for ships; able to cross oceans with out having to go around South America. -
The Great Migration
The Great Migration was the relocation of about 6 million African Americans from the rural Southern regions to the urban cities of the North. Driven from the south by limited economic opportunities and strict segregation laws, millions moved north, where the need for industrial workers was high. During the Great Migration, blacks began to redefine what it means to be black and american. During this time, blacks also actively confronted racial injustices economically, socially, and politically. -
The Origins of Planned Parenthood
Margaret Sanger along, opened the fist birth control clinic in the U.S. in New York City. The clinic would distribute birth control, as well as give information & advice. Margaret & her partners were jailed under accusations of "distributing obscene materials at the clinic." Their trials brought nationwide attention to their cause. The law was later changed, permitting physician-prescribed birth control. The women's campaign led to changes in laws on birth control & sex education in the U.S.. -
World War l Ends
World War l led 9 million soldiers to their deaths, and 21 million were wounded, along with at least 5 million civilians dying from disease, starvation, or war exposure. Germany- expecting to win the war- signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car in France. The ending of the "War to end all wars" resulted in the creation of the Treaty of Versailles, and the League of Nations. But with these solutions, came lingering conflicts lasting through the next 2 decades. -
Eighteenth Amendment
The Eighteenth Amendment was sparked by Prohibition movements against alcohol across the U.S.. The Amendment banned the sale, importation, and exportation of Alcohol nationwide. The amendment was later taken away because of the illegal selling of Alcohol and gang and crime rates that rose during the time the amendment was in place. -
Treaty of Versailles
With the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the first World War had officially come to an end. Negotiated among the Allied powers, with limited participation from Germany, the treaty reassigned German boundaries and assigned liabilities for war reparations against the now belittled country. -
The Nineteenth Amendment
The 19th Amendment of United States constitution granted women the right to vote- known as Women's Suffrage. The Women's Suffrage movement was a nationwide movement demanding that Women gain the right to vote. Organizations such as the the NAWSA (National American Women's Suffrage Movement) were vital to the passing of this amendment, and after the amendment was passed, Women were not quite finished with the conversation discussing Women's Rights- an issue that is still prominent today. -
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was an explosion of black culture after the Great Migration of African- American people from southern regions to northern cities. It was a redefining period of what it means to be black and an American. There was a roar of new music, and new artistic styles brought on by the community of Harlem. It was a period of taking back black history that started the movement of black pride throughout Harlem, and later trickled down to the rest of the nation. -
Gitlow V. New York
Benjamin Gitlow was a socialist who expressed his negative and opposing thoughts on the U.S. government via a number of published papers and magazines. This led him to fall into trouble with the Federal Government, out of fear that Gitlow's opinions would stir up conflict. His argument to the Supreme Court was that it was his 1st and 14th amendment right to speak as he feels fit. The ruling was that the state of New York was abusing their power, but Gitlow was in fact guilty. -
Stock Market Crash
The crash of 1929- also known as Black Tuesday- was caused by the rapid expansion of the Stock Market during the 1920s. Credit became widely popular, as well as investing, so people began investing and buying stocks on credit. This led the United States' economy into serious national debt. The country then went into a period titled "The Great Depression" in the following decade.
