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The construction of the White House began in 1790s. It was until 1800 that an American President came to live in it for the first time. Although it was still unfinished at the time, President John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams took up residence in the White House. Thus began the long tradition of White House becoming the seat of U.S. presidents. -
Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated as the third president in Washington, DC. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he would serve from 1801-1809. The Primary draftsman of the Declaration of Independence, the statesman responsible for the Louisiana Purchase. -
“ I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State”
-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Danbury Baptists -
Important Supreme Court Case: found Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 179 is unconstitutional. This declaration formed to concept of Judiciary Review- Congress cannot pass laws that are contrary to the Constitution. -
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United States agrees to pay France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory, which extends west from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and comprises about 830,000 sq mi. As a result, the U.S. nearly doubles in size. -
Set out from St. Louis, Mo., on expedition to explore the newly acquired West and find a route to the Pacific Ocean. They would reach the Pacific Ocean, later that year, on November 15th. -
Passed in the wake of the chaotic presidential election of 1800, in which Thomas Jefferson and his fellow Democratic-Republican Aaron Burr received the exact same number of votes in the Electoral College, the 12th Amendment provides the method for selecting president and vice president of the United States.
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Writer of the Federalist papers, would later be referred to as the "Father of the Constitution." He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. -
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U.S. declares war on Britain over British interference with American maritime shipping and westward expansion.
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Francis Scott Key writes Star-Spangled Banner as he watches British attack on Fort McHenry at Baltimore. -
Treaty signed, officially ending the war. Great Britain agreed to relinquish claims to the Northwest Territory and both countries pledged to work toward ending the slave trade.
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Elipalet Remington in Ilion New York becomes the first firearm manufacturer in the United Sates. E. Remington was an amateur gunsmith and marksman that was commissioned to start making rifles for peers.
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Oversaw the major westward expansion of the U.S. and strengthened American Foreign policy in 1823 with The Monroe Doctrine, a warning to European countries against further colonization and intervention in the western hemisphere. -
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Landmark Supreme Court decision upholds the right of Congress to establish a national bank, a power implied but not specifically enumerated by the Constitution. -
Spain renounced all claim to West Florida, they received no compensation, but the US agreed to assume liability for $5 million in damage done by the American citizens who rebelled against Spain.
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Denmark Vesey, an enslaved African American carpenter who had purchased his freedom, plans a slave revolt with the intent to lay siege on Charleston, South Carolina. The plot is discovered, and Vesey and 34 coconspirators are hanged.
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In his annual address to Congress, President Monroe declares that the American continents are henceforth off-limits for further colonization by European powers.
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A member of the Whig Party, he served from 1825-1829. -
Construction began on the first public railroad in the U.S. -
Linking the Hudson River to Lake Erie.
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On the heels of Texas declaring it's independence from Mexico, Texan defenders of the Alamo are all killed during siege by the Mexican Army. -
For the Cold Revolver, the first revolving barrel multishot firearm.
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Formed the new Democratic party from a coalition of Jeffersonian Republicans. He was not re-elected due to a stock market crash.
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More than 15,000 Cherokee Indians are forced to march from Georgia to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Approximately 4,000 die from starvation and disease along the ?Trail of Tear -
Died one month after his inaguration.
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Vice president that succeeded William Henry Harrison upon his death.
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A bit with two cut grooves in opposite sides of a round bar to drill holes in metal, plastic or wood.
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The Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, a federal outpost in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, marks the first military engagement of the American Civil War. After some 34 hours of bombardment, the fort surrenders on April 13, and Federal troops evacuate the fort the next day.
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Representatives of seceded states meet in Montgomery, Alabama, and form the Confederate States of America, electing Jefferson Davis as president. The CSA constitution ensures the extension of slavery into new states and territories.
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Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the antislavery Republican Party, is elected president. As a result, between December 1860 and April 1861, 11 Southern states secede from the Union. -
The First Battle of Bull Run, or the First Battle of Manassas, takes place near Manassas in northern Virginia and ends in a Confederate rout of Union forces. -
In a fierce battle at Shiloh, in southwestern Tennessee, Union forces rally from almost near defeat to drive back the Confederate army. Both sides are immobilized for the next three weeks because of the heavy casualties, including more than 13,000 on the Union side and more than 11,000 on the Confederate side.
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In the first battle of ironclad warships, the Merrimack (which had been rechristened by the Confederates as the Virginia) clashes with the Union Monitor. Although the Union navy blockades 3,500 miles (5,600 kilometers) of Confederate coastline during the war, the Confederates excel at running the blockade
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Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. It states that “all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” The proclamation also allows black men to serve in the Union army. Up until this time, the Confederate government and people had expected that the English and French governments would intervene on their side in the war, but the conversion of the struggle into a crusade against slavery makes European intervention impossible. -
After invading the North, Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee meet Union forces at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle rages over three days, involving heavy artillery duels and high casualties on both sides. The battle is considered a major turning point in the eastern theater. Lee withdraws and is forced to fight a defensive campaign for the rest of the war. -
In the western theater of the war, General Ulysses S. Grant lays siege to the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Confederates surrender on July 4. The victory leaves the Mississippi River completely under Union control and splits the Confederacy in half.
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On April 14 President Lincoln is shot in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., by John Wilkes Booth. The president dies on April 15. Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes president. The death of Lincoln will make reconciliation between the North and South more difficult. -
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Section 1 of the amendment reversed the Supreme Court’s notorious decision in 1857’s Dred Scott v. Sandford by stating that anyone born in the United States is a citizen. It also extended the civil rights of citizens and their right to due process by protecting civil rights from infringement by the states as well as the federal government. Finally, Section 1 guarantees “equal protection under the laws” to all citizens
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Prohibits the federal government and each state from denying or abridging a citizen's right to vote "on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude." It was ratified as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments. -