Forever Dates

Columbus' first voyage

1492

Spanish Domination

1492-1588

Jamestown

1607; first permanent English colony in the America's (prior to this, the colony of Roanoke failed/disappeared) beginning of English settlement and eventual domination of North America

Mayflower Compact

1620; first agreement for self-government in America. It was signed by the men on the Mayflower who set up a government for Plymouth colony.

King Philip's War

1675; longest and bloodiest conflict between settlers and natives in 17th century, native americans under King Phillip resisted England encroachment on their land, they killed many settlers in Mass, English joined with Mohawks to defeat them

Bacon's Rebellion

1676; Nathaniel Bacon and other Virginia settlers were angry at Virginia Governor for appeasing Native Americans after they attacked settlements. The settlers formed an army, with Bacon as its leader, which defeated the Natives and then marched on Jamestown and burned the city. The rebellion ended when Bacon died.

Pueblo Revolt

1680; uprising by Pueblo Indians of the Southwest which drove the Spanish out of New Mexico

Salem Witch Trials

1692-1693; series of witchcraft trials launched after a group of adolescent girls in Salem, Massachusetts, claimed to have been bewitched by older women of the town; twenty individuals were put to death before the trials were put to an end by the Governor of Massachusetts

Seven Years' War

1754-1763; global conflict between Britain and France, that began in North America France ultimately ceded all of its North American territories to England and Spain, but the enormous cost of the war also damaged the British economy.
The Seven Years' War: Consequences
resentment by the colonists of British rule, English raised the price of goods sold to Native Americans Led to Pontiac Rebellion

Proclamation of 1763

Result of Pontiac's Rebellion; Forbade white settlement west of the Appalachians to reduce conflict between natives and the settlers; Outraged colonists believed that the successful outcome of Seven Years War should have allowed settlement in the Ohio Valley

Stamp Act

1765; taxed printed goods.

Boston Massacre

1770; British soldiers fired into a crowd of colonists who were teasing and taunting them. Five colonists were killed.

Boston Tea Party

1773; protest against British taxes Boston colonists disguised as Mohawks dumped tea into Boston Harbor.

Revolutionary War

1775-1783; global war that began as a conflict between Great Britain and the Colonies, which declared independence as U.S.A.
-Sparked by Stamp Act against King George the III, Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party

Dec. of Independence

1776; announced colonies then at war with Great Britain were independent states, no longer part of the British Empire (work of Thomas Jefferson) ("...all men are created equal")

Treaty of Paris

1783; ended the Revolutionary War

Shays Rebellion

1786; revolt in Massachusetts led by farmers in reaction to high taxes

Constitutional Convention

1787; meeting at which the U.S. Constitution was created.

Washington's Election

1788

Bill of Rights

1791; First ten amendments of U.S. Constitution. Secure key rights for individuals and reserve to the states all powers not explicitly delegated/prohibited by Constitution.

XYZ Affair

1798; French agents demanded bribes before meeting with American diplomatic representatives.

Alien & Sedition Acts

1798; security acts passed by the Federalist-controlled Congress. The Alien Act allowed the president to imprison or deport noncitizens; the Sedition Act placed significant restrictions on political speech.

Jefferson's Election

1800; peaceful exchange of power from the Federalist Party to the Democratic-Republican Party was revolutionary and illustrated a two-party system that did not result in civil war/destruction of the ideals of the new republic

Market Revolution

1800-1850; Innovations in agriculture, industry, communication, and transportation. increased efficiency and productivity. linked northern industry with western farms and southern plantations.

Louisiana Purchase

1803; purchase of the Louisiana territory from France. Made by Jefferson, doubled size of the US.

War of 1812

1812-1815; War between the U.S. and Great Britain (Native Americans aligned with British) caused by British violation of American neutral rights on the high seas (impressment); ended with an agreement of "status quo ante" (a return to how things were before the war) and Treaty of Ghent

Era of Good Feelings

1816-1824; period of one-party, Republican, rule during James Monroe's presidency. Obscures bitter conflicts over internal improvements, slavery, and the national bank.

Missouri Compromise

1820; allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine to enter as a free state and established the southern border of Missouri as the boundary between slave and free states throughout the Louisiana Territory.

Monroe Doctrine

1823; Any attempt at interference in Western Hemisphere seen as a threat to the U.S.'s right to protect national security. Also declared that a New World colony which gained independence may not be recolonized by Europe. (written at a time when many S. American nations were gained independence). Mostly a show of nationalism, doctrine had no major impact until later 1800s.

Sectionalism

1820s; new political parties, new religious organizations, and new reform movements. As politics grew more democratic, leaders attacked old inequalities of wealth and power, but in doing so many pandered to a unity under white supremacy.

Jackson's Election

1828; led to rise of the spoils system, in which jobs were traded for political favors

Indian Removal Act

1830; removal of Native Americans who lived east of the Mississippi River

Nat Turner's Rebellion

1831; Virginia slave revolt that resulted in the deaths of dozens. Raised fears among white Southerners of further uprisings.

Nullification Crisis

1832; South Carolina passed a resolution forbidding the collection of tariffs in the state. Jackson threatened use of federal troops against South Carolina.

Manifest Destiny

1830-1850; Americans belief in the God-given right to expand west.

Battle of the Alamo

1836; attack on the Alamo mission by mexican forces during the texas revolution

Trail of Tears

1831-1850; forced march of Cherokees from Georgia to west of the Mississippi River that were designated as Indian Territory. Inadequate planning, food, water, sanitation, and medicine led to the deaths of thousands of Cherokees.

Election of James K. Polk

1844; ran on platform for western expansion. Led U.S. to victory in Mexican American War; with more land, sectional tensions continued to rise eventually leading to Civil War.

Annexation of Texas

1845; After the battle at the Alamo, Texas gains its independence, only to be annexed by the US shortly after. Leading to a land grab for California

Mexican-American War

1845 - 1848; Ultimately Mexico ceded a lot of land to U.S. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo debates over the status of slavery in these territories reignited the national debate about the expansion of slavery.

Seneca Falls Convention

1848; Women of all ages and some men went to discuss the rights and conditions of women. There, they wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, which among other things, tried to get women the right to vote.

Fugitive Slave Law

1793, 1850; Provided for the return of escaped slaves to their owners. The North was lax about enforcing the law which irritated the South. 1850 law aimed at eliminating the underground railroad.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

1852; novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Meant to publicize the evils of slavery.

Bleeding Kansas & Kansas Nebraska Act

1854; created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska out of what was the Native Amer. land. Issue of slavery would be settled by popular sovereignty in each territory.

Dred Scott Case

1857; Supreme Court case centered on status of Dred Scott and his family. In its ruling, Court denied the claim that black men had any rights and blocked Congress from excluding slavery from any territory.

Lincoln's Election

1860; The first Republican president.

Civil War

1861-1865; war between union and confederacy over the institution of slavery.

Homestead Act

1862; Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.

Purchase of Alaska

1866; U.S. offered to take Alaska from Russia. Russia was eager to give it up, gave U.S. Alaska's resources of fish, timber, oil and gold.

Compromise of 1877 & Reconstruction Ends

Compromise b/t Reb. and S. Dems. that resulted in the election of Rutherford B. Hayes Southern Democrats agreed to support Hayes in the disputed presidential election in exchange for his promise to end Reconstruction (removed troops from the South)

End of the Civil War

1865; Led to second Movement West. Capitalism trumps democracy as "Captains of Industry" like Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie fight for control of the nation's business. This led to the Populist backlash.

Gilded Age

1870-1900; term coined by Mark Twain to describe the tremendous increase in wealth caused by the industrial age. Allowed rich. The great industrial success of the U.S. and the fabulous lifestyles of the wealthy. Hid the many social problems of the time, including a high poverty rate, a high crime rate, harsh labor conditions, and corruption in the government

Little Bighorn

1876; marked most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War

Haymarket Square Riot

1886; A demonstration of striking laborers that turned violent.

Dawes Act

1887; gave all native males 160 acres to farm, also set up schools to make native children assimilate to American society; ended by Indian Reorganization Act 1934

Wounded Knee

1890; confrontation between U.S. cavalry and Sioux that marked the end of Indian resistance

Sherman Antitrust Act

1890; banned formation of trusts and monopolies in U.S.

Populism

1890s; Aggrieved farmers advocating radical reforms
Raised possibility of reform through government
Successes in local and national elections
Encouraged others to seek change through political action

Pullman Strike

1894; railway workers' strike spread nationwide.

"Cross of Gold" Speech

1896; Address given by William Jennings Bryan, during the national convention of the Dem. Party. Criticized gold standard and supported the coinage of silver. Bryan's beliefs were popular with debt-ridden farmers

Plessy v. Ferguson

1896; Supreme Court decision legalized state ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal

Annexation of Hawaii

Hawaii economy collapsed in 1890s due to U.S. tariffs and dependence on trade with U.S. White minority overthrew native government, U.S. annexed Hawaii in 1898

Spanish-American War

Explosion of American warship in Havana harbor led to war with Spain in 1898. Spain ceded the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the U.S. in the Treaty of Paris. U.S. claimed it wouldn't annex Cuba through Teller Amendment, but troops stayed and made Cuba include Platt Amendment in its new constitution

Progressive Era

1900-1920; resulted in many reforms, including conservation, regulation of monopolies and trusts, and the establishment of federal standards in food and drug industries.

US enters WWI

1917; U.S. tried to keep neutrality but German U-Boats attacking and sinked American ships. America's participation tipped balance in Allie's favor

Women's Suffrage

1920; Nineteenth Amendment provided women's suffrage. Feminists who supported suffrage: Susan B. Anthony

Red Scare

1920s; Intense fear of communism and other politically radical ideas

Prohibition

1920; ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol

Stock Market Crash

1929; led to Great Depression due to Europe's economy from WWI and reparations, overproduction led to lay offs and low market value, production outstripping ability to buy, concentration of wealth and power in a few businessmen, government laissez in regulation

Bonus Army March

1932; Protest organized by WWI veterans who were demanding payment of the service bonus they had been promised after the war. Hoover refused.

WWII starts in Europe

1939; Hitler's invasion of Poland drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany

Attack on Pearl Harbor

1941; attack turned US public opinion in favor of entering WWII and away from isolationism

D-Day

1944; Led by Eisenhower, (the largest invasion force in history) stormed the beaches at Normandy and began the process of re-taking France. The turning point of World War II.

Atomic Bomb dropped

1945; Under the Manhattan Project developed the first atomic bombs. President Truman authorizes the use of atomic bombs in effort to have Japan surrender.

Cold War

1947-1991; Struggle for world dominance between capitalist U.S. and communist USSR; fought through proxy wars and propraganda.

Truman Doctrine

1947; Stated that U.S. would support any nation threatened by Communism.

Korean War

1950-1953; Conflict that began with North Korea's invasion of South Korea and came to involve U.S. allying with South Korea and the People's Republic of China allying with North Korea.

McCarthyism

1950s; Associated with Joseph McCarthy who led search for communists in U.S. through his leadership in the House Un-American Activities Committee

Brown v. Board of Education

1954; Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

1955; after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal.

Sputnik

1957 ; first artificial satellite sent into space, launched by the Soviets.

Cuban Missile Crisis

1962; confrontation between US and the Soviet Union over Soviet missiles in Cuba.

March on Washington

1963; civil rights leaders organized a massive rally in front of Lincoln Memorial to urge passage of President Kennedy's civil rights bill. MLK Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream" speech to marchers.

JFK assassinated

1963

Civil Rights Act of 1964

banned discrimination in public acomodations, prohibited discrimination in any federally assisted program, outlawed discrimination in most employment; enlarged federal powers to protect voting rights and speed school desegregation; voting rights act helped to give African-Americans equality on legislation, and more federally-protected power so that social equality was a more realistic goal

Tet Offensive

1968; (during Tet, the Vietnam lunar new year) Viet communists raiding forces attacked provincial capitals throughout Vietnam, even seized U.S. embassy for a time. U.S. opinion began turning against war.

Moon Landing

1969; Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Earth's moon.

Watergate break-in

1972; illegal entry into the Democratic National Committee offices by participants in President Nixon's reelection campaign. Led to Nixon's resignation and Ford became president.

Roe v. Wade

1973; Supreme Court decision that affirmed a woman's constitutional right to abortion.

Iranian Hostage Crisis

1979; Iranian fundamentalists seized the American embassy in Tehran and held dozens of American diplomats hostage for over a year. The Iranian hostage crisis weaked the Carter presidency; the hostages were finally released the day Ronald Reagan became president.

Election of Ronald Reagan

1980; led to rise of conservative revolution

Cold War ends

1991; because of soviet withdrawal from afghanistan (1989), fall of berlin wall (1989), mostly peaceful revolutions in Soviet Bloc (1989), gorbachev resigns and the Soviet Union dissolves (1991)

Persian Gulf War

1991; Conflict between Iraq and a coalition of countries led by U.S. to remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait which they had invaded in hopes of controlling their oil supply. A one sided war with U.S. coalition emerging victorious.

Contract with America

1994; Newt Gingrich had Republican candidates sign a document in which they pledged their support for such things as a balanced budget amendment, term limits for members of Congress, and a middle-class tax cut.

Oklahoma City Bombing

1995; Timothy McVeigh destroyed the Oklahoma City Federal Building with a fertilizer bomb killing over a hundred people. McVeigh said he was upset with the government about the Branch Davidian fiasco and the events at Ruby Ridge. McVeigh was later killed

Bush v. Gore

Court declared that Florida vote recount violated equal protection clause (some votes would be examined more closely than others); ended Gore's challenge to 2000 election results. Power of judicial review (effectively decided 2000 election).

9/11

Series of coordinated attacks by al-Qaeda upon U.S. created thousands of civilian casualties. (Response) U.S. received support from NATO allies to attack Taliban gov. in Afghanistan; restored democracy in Afghanistan

Great Recession

2007-2009; severe economic downturn because of the failure of two big hedge funds

Obama elected

2008

Affordable Care Act

2010; expanded access to insurance, address cost reduction and affordability, improved the quality of healthcare, and introduced the Patient's Bill of Rights