"1491"

refers to the years before Columbus' arrival, advanced civilizations among indigenous peoples (e.g. Cahokia, Pueblo)

1492

Columbus's arrival in North America

1607

Jamestown established, first permanent English settlement

1619

House of Burgesses established, first representative assembly

1619

first slave ship arrives in British colonies (a dutch ship)

1620

Pilgrims arrive on the Mayflower and form Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts

1630

Puritans arrive in Massachusetts Bay Colony (John Winthrop City Upon A Hill)

1680

Pueblo Revolt (Pope's Rebellion), Pueblo Indians oust Spanish from present day NM (temporarily)

1754-1763

Seven Years War/French Indian War/Great War for Empire

1776

colonies declare independence from Britain

1775-1783

American Revolution

1777-1789

Articles of Confederation

1787

Constitutional Convention

1789

George Washington inaugurated as first president of the US

1800

Jefferson elected, marks first peaceful transfer of power in the new nation from one political party to another (Federalists to Republicans)

1803

Louisiana Purchase

1807

importation of slavery ends (as set by the Constitution), internal slave trade intensifies, abolition movement grows

1820

Missouri Compromise

1828

Andrew Jackson elected: nomination conventions, expansion of elected to all white men (not just land owning)

1833

Foundation of Whig Party in US (second party system: Democrats and Whigs)

1844

Polk elected

1845

Manifest Destiny term used to describe expansion to the West

1846-1848

War with Mexico, results in Mexican Cession

1848

Seneca Falls Convention, Declaration of Sentiments

1850

Compromise of 1850

1857

Dred Scott vs. Sanford decision

1860

Lincoln elected president, member of new Republican Party, followed by secession of deep southern states

1861-1865

Civil War

1869

Transcontinential Railroad completed at Promontory Point

1877

Compromise of 1877 settled election of 1876 and removed federal troops from South, ending Reconstruction

1860s-1900

Industralization, immigration increases greatly, particularly from eastern and southern Europe

1890

Battle of Wounded Knee, end of armed Indian resistance

1892

Populist Party formed

1896

Plessy vs. Ferguson decision

1898

Spanish-American War/War of 1898

c.1900

Progressive reform movement rises to counter ills of industrialization, Teddy Roosevelt president

1912

Woodrow Wilson elected president

1914-1918

World War I, US enters in 1917, Great Migration begins

1920

women's suffrage (19th amendment) passed

1929

Stock market crash, depression begins

1932

FDR elected, New Deal legislation begins in first hundred days after inauguration

1939-1945

World War II, US enters after Dec 7, 1941: attack on Pearl Harbor, June 6, 1944: D-Day, August 6, 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

1945

Allies triumphant, US and USSR become contrasting world powers, Cold War begins

1950-1953

Korean War

1954

Brown vs. Board of Education decision

1955

Montgomery Bus Boycott

1962

Cuban Missile Crisis

1963

MLK's March on Washington

1963

Kennedy assasinated, Johnson becomes president

1964

Civil Rights Act passed

1965

Voting Rights Act passed

1964-1973

US involvement in Vietnam War: US troops were in Vietnam prior to this, but the Gulf of Tonkin incident and Resolution were in 1964

1980

Ronald Reagan elected, conservative ascendance

1989

Cold War ends with fall of the Berlin Wall, USSR dissolves in 1991

1991

First Gulf War

2001

Al Qaeda attacks US on September 11, War on Terror

2003

Troops to Iraq, demonstrates GW Bush's doctrine of "pre-emptive war"

2008

Obama elected president, first African American to hold office