3: Civil War, Reconstruction & Industrialization (1861–1914)

1861

Civil War begins at Fort Sumter

1862

Homestead Act (accelerated western settlement by granting any adult citizen up to 160 acres of public land provided they lived on and improved it for five years.)

1863

Emancipation Proclamation & Battle of Gettysburg

1865

Civil War ends; Lincoln assassinated; 13th Amendment ratified

1868

14th Amendment (Birthright citizenship/equal protection)

1869

Transcontinental Railroad completed

1876

Battle of the Little Bighorn (a decisive victory for Native forces over the U.S. Army, marking a major, though temporary, check on federal expansion into Indigenous lands.)

1877

Reconstruction ends (Jim Crow era begins)

1879

Edison perfects the lightbulb

1890

Wounded Knee Massacre

1896

Plessy v Ferguson ("Separate but equal")

1898

Spanish-American War (U.S. becomes an empire)

1903

Wright Brothers' first flight

1908

Ford introduces the Model T

1913

Federal Reserve established