1492

Christopher Columbus discovers America

1497

John Cabot claims North America for England

1501

:Amerigo Vespucci explores the coast of South America

1519

Ferdinand Magellan is the first to go around the world

Alonzo de Pineda explores gulf Coast of America

1524

Giovanni Verrazano discovers New York Bay

1528

Panfilo de Narvaez conquers Cuba and explores Florida

Alvar Cabeza de Vaca explores Texas, Arizona and New Mexico

1534

:Jacques Cartier explores the Great Lakes and the the St. Lawrence River

1539

Hernando de Soto explores south-eastern North America

1540

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado explores south-western North America

Discovery of the Grand Canyon by Garcia Lopez de Cardenas

1541

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado explores Kansas

1542

Cabrillo explores and discovers the Californian coast

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovers San Diego Bay, California

1559

Tristan de Luna explores North America

1563

Francisco de Ibarra explores New Mexico

1576

Sir Martin Frobisher explores Baffin Bay and the Hudson Strait

1577

Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the world - December 13 1577 to September 26 1580

1584

Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe (both in the service of Sir Walter Raleigh) explore the coast of North Carolina

1585

March 25: Walter Raleigh receives the patent to explore and settle in North America

June: Walter Raleigh's fleet of seven vessels under Richard Grenville and Ralph Lane, with 108 men, reach Roanoke Island

June 4: Virginia colony of Roanoke Island established by Walter Raleigh

1598

Juan de Archuleta explores Colorado

1607

Captain John Smith explorer and founder of Jamestown

1609

Henry Hudson explores North eastern North America including the Hudson River

1688

The Glorious Revolution in England leads to a constitutional monarchy and passing of the Bill of Rights

1763

February 10: Treaty of Paris ends French and Indian War (1754-1763). Canada east of the Mississippi River added to the British empire.

Pontiac's Rebellion against the British

October 7: The Proclamation of 1763 issued  by King George III after the end of the French and Indian War / Seven Years' War to organize the new North American empire and stabilize relations with Native Americans. No British settlements allowed west of the Appalachian mountains. Settlers already in these areas required to return east

1764

February: James Otis urges a united response to the recent acts imposed by England. The phrase "Taxation without Representation is Tyranny" is usually attributed to James Otis

July: James Otis publishes "The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved."

August:  Boston merchants begin a boycott of British luxury goods

1765

March 22: The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament. March 24: The Quartering Act required American colonists to house British troops and supply them with food.

July: The Sons of Liberty is formed - a secret organization opposed to the Stamp Act

December: Over 200 Boston merchants refuse to pay the Stamp Tax

1766

1766 March 18. Stamp Act repealed

January: New York assembly refuses to fully enforce the Quartering Act.

August: Violence breaks out in New York between British soldiers and members of the Sons of Liberty.

1768

July: Merchants in Boston and New York boycott British goods

September: English warships sail into Boston Harbor leaving two regiments of English troops to keep order.

1770

March: "The Boston Massacre" - Four workers shot by British troops in Boston

1773

December 16: The Boston Tea Party - Massachusetts patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians protest against the British Tea Act by dumping crates of tea into Boston Harbor.

1774

March:  The Coercive Acts (called Intolerable Acts by Americans)

1775

February 9: English Parliament declares Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion

April 19 Shots fired at Lexington and Concord where weapons depot destroyed. "Minute Men" force British troops back to Boston. George Washington takes command of the Continental Army.

June 15: George Washington appointed general and commander-in-chief of the new Continental Army.

June 17:  Battle of Bunker Hill

July 6: Declaration on the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms stating that Americans are "resolved to die free men rather than live as slaves."

The American Revolution, the American War of Independence, led by George Washingtonwas fought between Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.

1776

May 2: The American revolution gains support  from King Louis XVI of France

1776 July 4. Thomas Jefferson presents the United States Declaration of Independence

1777

November 15: Articles of Confederation - Congress is made sole authority of the new national government.

1778

February 6:  France signs a treaty of alliance with the United States and the American Revolution soon becomes a world war.

September 14: Benjamin Franklin appointed American representative in France.

1779

September 27: John Adams is appointed to negotiate peace with England.

1780

September 23:  Plans discovered indicating Benedict Arnold intends to turn traitor and surrender West Point. Benedict Arnold joins the British

1781

October 17: American victory at Yorktown terms discussed for the British surrender.

October 19:  The British army surrenders at Yorktown - a devastating effect on the British

1782

February 27: English Parliament votes against further war in America.

November 10: The final battle of the Revolutionary War when Americans retaliate by attacking a Shawnee village in Ohio

November 30: Preliminary peace treaty signed in Paris recognising American independence and the British withdrawal from America.

1783

February 4: England officially declares an end to hostilities in America

September 3: The Treaty of Paris is signed by the United States and Great Britain

1784

January 14: The Treaty of Paris is ratified by Congress and the American Revolutionary War officially ends

1789

First President of the US is George Washington 1789-1797

The first thirteen states were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island

Judiciary Act of 1789

1791

Bill of Rights ratified

1793

Fugitive Slave Act passed

1795

Vermont and Kentucky were admitted to the US

1794

Whiskey Rebellion

1797

Second President of the US is John Adams 1797-1801

1799

Logan Act

1800

Library of Congress founded

1801

Third President of the US is Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809

1803

Louisiana Purchase Treaty

1804

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explore the Louisiana Territory

1805

Barbary Wars

1807

Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves

1808

U.S. slave trade with Africa ends

1809

Fourth President of the US is James Madison 1809-1817

1811

Battle of Tippecanoe

1812

War of 1812 begins

1814

Treaty of Fort Jackson ends Creek War

1817

Fifth President of the US is James Monroe 1817-1825

Harvard Law School founded

1818

Jackson Purchase in Kentucky

1818 Five more states were admitted to the US - Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, and Mississippi

1819

Adams-Onis Treaty, including acquisition of Florida

Illinois admission to the US

1820

Alabama and Maine admission to the US

1822

Missouri admission to the US

1825

Sixth President of the US is John Quincy Adams 1825-1829

1829

Seventh President of the US is Andrew Jackson 1829-1837

1830

Indian Removal Act

Oregon Trail opens

1831

Nat Turner's revolt

1832

Black Hawk War

Seminole War begins

Department of Indian Affairs established

1835

Texas War for Independence begins

1836

Arkansas admission to the US

1837

Battle of the Alamo

Panic of 1837

Michigan admission to the US 

1838

1838-1839: The Trail of Tears

1841

Ninth President of the US is William Henry Harrison 1841

1841

Tenth President of the US is John Tyler 1841-1845

1845

Eleventh President of the US is James Knox Polk 1845-1849

Texas admission to the US

Florida admission to the US

1846

Mexican-American War begins and ends in 1848

Texas admission to the US

Oregon Treaty signed

1847

Treaty of Cahuenga ends Mexican-American War

Iowa admission to the US

1848

Gold discovered in California

Wisconsin admission to the US

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War

1849

Twelfth President of the US is Zachary Taylor 1849-1850

1850

Thirteenth President of the US is Millard Fillmore 1850-1853

1851

California admission to the US

1853

Fourteenth President of the US is Franklin Pierce 1853-1857

Gadsden Purchase

1856

Sack of Lawrence, Kansas

Pottawatomie Massacre

1857

Fifteenth President of the US is James Buchanan 1857-1861

1858

Minnesota admission to the US

1859

Oregon admission to the US

Harper's Ferry Raid

1860

Pony Express begins

1861

Sixteenth President of the US is Abraham Lincoln 1861-1865

Kansas admission to the US

Confederate States of America (the Confederacy) established under President Jefferson Davis

American Civil War begins at Fort Sumter. The American Civil War, also called the War between the States, was waged from April 1861 until April 1865. The four year war was between the federal government of the United States and 11 Southern states that asserted their right to secede (withdraw) from the Union. Abraham Lincoln was the central figure of the American Civil War.

First Battle of Bull Run

1863

Battle of Gettysburg

West Virginia admission to the US

1864

Sand Creek Massacre

1865

Abraham Lincoln assassinated

Seventeenth President of the US is Andrew Johnson 1865-1869

Nevada admission to the US

United States Civil War ends

1866

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Ku Klux Klan founded

1867

Nebraska admission to the US

Alaska Purchase from Russia

1869

Eighteenth President of the US is Ulysses Simpson Grant 1869-1877

1871

Great Chicago Fire

Treaty of Washington with Great Britain regarding the Dominion of Canada

1872

Yellowstone National Park established

1874

Red River Wars

1875

Civil Rights Act of 1875

1876

Battle of the Little Bighorn

1877

Nineteenth Rutherford Birchard Hayes 1877-1881

Colorado admission to the US

Nez Perce War

1881

Twentieth President of the US is James Abram Garfield 1881

1881

Twenty - First President of the US is Chester Alan Arthur 1881-1885

1882

Chinese Exclusion Act and European Restriction Act

1885

Twenty-Second President of the US is Grover Cleveland 1885-1889

Washington monument completed

1889

Twenty - Third President of the US is Benjamin Harrison 1889-1893

1890

North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, and Idaho admission to the US

Yosemite National Park created

Wounded Knee Massacre

1891

Wyoming admission to the US

1893

Twenty - Fourth President of the US is Grover Cleveland 1893-1897

1896

Utah admission to the US

Gold discovered in the Yukon's Klondike

1897

Twenty - Fifth President of the US is William McKinley 1897-1901

1898

Spanish-American War

1900

Boxer Rebellion in China

1901

Twenty - Sixth President of the US is Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909

1903

Ford Motor Company formed

1903 - First World Series

1904

Panama Canal Zone acquired

1908

Oklahoma admission to the US

Ford Model T marketed

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)  established

1909

Twenty - Seventh President of the US is William Howard Taft 1909-1913

1912

Arizona, Alaska and New Mexico admission to the US

Titanic sinks

1913

Twenty - Eighth President of the US is Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921

1914

WW1started 28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918

1915

The Birth of a Nation movie directed by D.W. Griffith opens

1917

US enters World War I

U.S. Virgin Islands purchased from Denmark

1919

Treaty of Versailles

1920

First radio broadcast in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1921

Twenty- Ninth President of the US is Warren Gamaliel Harding 1921-1923

1923

Thirtieth President of the US is Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929

1924

Indian Reorganization Act

1927

Indian Reorganization Act

Charles Lindbergh makes first trans-Atlantic flight

The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson is the first "talkie" to be released

1929

Thirty- First President of the US is Herbert Clark Hoover 1929-1933

St. Valentine's Day massacre

Immigration Act

Great Depression begins

1931

Empire State Building opens

1932

Amelia Earhart flies across Atlantic Ocean

1933

Thirty - Second President of the US is Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1933-1945

Japan and Germany withdraw from League of Nations

1934

Dust Bowl begins

Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act

John Dillinger killed

Indian Reorganization Act

1935

Social Security Act

1936

London Conference on disarmament

1937

Hindenburg disaster

1939

Germany invades Poland; World War IIbegins

1941

Attack on Pearl Harbor

U.S. enters World War II

1944

 D-Day

Battle of the Bulge

1945

Thirty - Third President of the US is Harry S. Truman 1945-1953

U.S. takes Okinawa

U.S. joins the United Nations

Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Germany and Japan surrender, ending World War II

1946

The Cold Warbegan between the United States and the Soviet Union

1946

Atomic Energy Act

1948

Nuremberg trials

Berlin Blockade

1949

NATO formed

Germany divided into East and West

1950

Senator Joseph McCarthy gains power and start Communist witch hunts (1950-1954)

Korean War begins

1953

Thirty - Fourth President of the US is Dwight David Eisenhower 1953-1961

Armistice in Korea

1954

SEATO alliance

1955

Warsaw Pact

1956

US installs Diem as leader of South Vietnam

1957

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Russians launch Sputnik

1958

NASA formed

1959

Cuban Revolution

1960

Greensboro sit-in

Civil Rights Act of 1960

Hawaii, the last state was admitted giving the American flag 50 stars

1961

Thirty - Fifth President of the US is John Fitzgerald Kennedy 1961-1963

Peace Corps

Vietnam War officially begins with 900 military advisors landing in Saigon

OPEC formed

1962

Cuban Missile Crisis

1963

President J Kennedy assassinated

Thirty - Sixth President of the US is Lyndon Baines Johnson 1963-1969

March on Washington; Martin Luther King, Jr. "I have a dream" speech

1964

Civil Rights Act of 1964

1965

Detroit race riot

1968

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy assassinated

Civil Rights Act of 1968

1969

Thirty - Seventh President of the US is Richard Milhous Nixon 1969-1974

Vietnam

Neil Armstrong walks on the moon

1970

Kent State shootings

1972

Watergate burglary

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with USSR

1973

Vietnam War ends with US pulling out in 1973

Watergate Scandal breaks in 1973

Skylab first space station launched

1974

Richard Nixon resigns Presidency over Watergate

Thirty - Eighth President of the US is Gerald Rudolph Ford 1974-1977

1977

Thirty - Ninth President of the US is Jimmy Carter 1977-1981

1979

Three Mile Island nuclear accident

1979 - Iran hostage crisis begins

1981

Fortieth President of the US is Ronald Wilson Reagan 1981-1989

Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley

1986

Iran-Contra scandal breaks

Space Shuttle Challenger accident

1990

Forty - First President of the US is George Herbert Walker Bush 1989-1993

Hubble Space Telescope placed in orbit

Iraq invades Kuwait leading to 1991 Gulf War

1991

Gulf War

1992

Los Angeles riots

Hurricane Andrew causes devastation in Florida and Louisiana

1993

Forty - Second President of the US is William Jefferson Clinton 1993-2001

World Trade Center bombing

Waco siege

1995

Oklahoma City bombing

1999

President Clinton is acquitted in impeachment trial by U.S. Senate

2001

Forty - Third President of the US is George Walker Bush

September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon

Invasion of Afghanistan Operation "Enduring Freedom"

2004

Occupation of Iraq, 2003-2004

2005

Hurricane Katrina

2009

Forty - Fourth President of the US is BarackObama

American History Timeline

Privacy Statement

Cookie Policy

© 2017 Siteseen Ltd