APUSH Turning Points Study Guide — 30 Key Dates

1492

Columbus’s voyage begins lasting European contact; Columbian Exchange starts.

1607

Jamestown founded — first permanent English colony.

1619

First Africans arrive in Virginia — beginning of institutional slavery.

1620

Mayflower Compact — early self-government.

1676

Bacon’s Rebellion — class tensions spur racialized slavery.

1754-1763

French & Indian War — ends French power, Britain tightens control.

1763

Proclamation Line — end of salutary neglect; sparks unrest.

1776

Declaration of Independence — formal break with Britain

1781

Yorktown/Articles — war ends, weak government exposed.

1787

Constitutional Convention — creates enduring federal system.

1800

Jefferson elected — peaceful power transfer.

1803

Louisiana Purchase — doubles territory, accelerates westward push.

1820

Missouri Compromise — tries to balance slavery, raises sectional tension.

1828

Jackson elected — rise of ‘common man’ politics.

1848

Seneca Falls Convention — launches the organized women’s rights movement.

1848

Guadalupe Hidalgo — U.S. reaches Pacific, spurs sectional debate.

1860

Lincoln elected — secession follows.

1861-1865

Civil War — Union preserved, slavery ends

1865

13th Amendment — slavery abolished; Reconstruction begins.

1868

14th Amendment — grants citizenship and equal protection.

1890

Frontier ‘closed’/Wounded Knee — Native resistance ends.

1896

Plessy v. Ferguson — legalizes segregation; shapes race relations.

1898

Spanish–American War — U.S. becomes imperial power.

1917

U.S. enters WWI — shift to global involvement.

1929

Stock Market Crash — Great Depression begins.

1941

Pearl Harbor — ends isolationism, WWII starts.

1944

G.I. Bill — expands education, reshapes postwar society.

1945

WWII ends — U.S. emerges as superpower.

1954

Brown v. Board of Education — overturns Plessy; fuels Civil Rights Movement.

1964-1965

Civil/Voting Rights Acts — end legal segregation.

1969

Moon Landing — Cold War prestige; technological milestone.

1980

Reagan elected — conservatism reshapes politics.

2001

9/11 — War on Terror; security priorities shift.