APUSH Timeline 5-6
Manifest Destiny term coined by John O’Sullivan 1845
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass published 1845
U.S. acquires Oregon Territory (“54°40′ or fight!”) 1846
Mexican‑American War begins (Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience,” Wilmot Proviso) 1846
Free‑Soil Party established 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends war 1848
Seneca Falls Convention 1848
“Know‑Nothing” (American) Party founded 1849
Compromise of 1850 1850
Uncle Tom’s Cabin published 1851
Kansas‑Nebraska Act 1854
Bleeding Kansas / Pottawatomie Massacre 1854‑1861
Dred Scott v. Sandford decision 1857
Lincoln‑Douglas Debates (Freeport Doctrine) 1858
John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry 1859
Election of 1860 & South Carolina secedes 1860
Battle of Fort Sumter 1861
Civil War begins (strengths & weaknesses) 1861
First Battle of Bull Run 1861
Gettysburg Address 1863
Emancipation Proclamation 1863
Sherman’s March to the Sea 1864
Civil War ends; Lincoln assassinated 1865
13th Amendment 1865
Freedmen’s Bureau established 1865
KKK organized & Black Codes enacted 1865
14th Amendment 1868
15th Amendment 1870
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson 1868
Standard Oil trust formed (horizontal integration) 1868
Knights of Labor founded 1869
Transcontinental Railroad completed 1869
Railroads’ impact on U.S. & Native Americans (general) 1870s
Boss Tweed scandal exposed 1871
Women’s Christian Temperance Union organized 1874
Battle of Little Bighorn 1876
Railroad Strike of 1877 1877
Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction 1877
Booker T. Washington heads Tuskegee Institute 1881
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882
American Federation of Labor founded 1886
Dawes Severalty Act 1887
Hull House opens in Chicago 1889
Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” essay 1889
NAWSA founded 1890
“New Immigrants” peak decade (southern & eastern Europe) 1890s
Sherman Antitrust Act 1890
Homestead Steel Strike 1892
Populist Party (People’s) formed 1892
Pullman Strike 1894
Plessy v. Ferguson decision 1896
Rise of Yellow Journalism 1890s
Teller Amendment 1898
Spanish‑American War 1898