AP US History: Comprehensive Review of Major Dates and Key Terms

Early Colonial Foundations and Conflict ($1620$–$1680$)

• Mayflower Compact ($1620$): This foundational document established a framework for self-governance among the Pilgrims upon their arrival in the New World.
• King Philip's War ($1675$): A significant and bloody conflict between English colonists and Native American groups in New England.
• Bacon's Rebellion ($1676$): An armed uprising in the Virginia Colony led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.
• Pueblo Revolt ($1680$): A successful uprising of the Pueblo people against Spanish colonizers in present-day New Mexico.

Eighteenth-Century Awakening and Imperial Conflict ($1730s$–$1763$)

• First Great Awakening ($1730s$ and $1740s$): A period of intense religious revival throughout the American colonies that emphasized individual faith.
• French and Indian War ($1754-1763$): A major imperial struggle between Great Britain and France (bolstered by Native American allies) for control of North America.
• Pontianc's Rebellion ($1763$): An indigenous uprising against British post-war policies in the Great Lakes region following the French and Indian War.

The Path to Revolution and Independence ($1765$–$1781$)

• Stamp Act ($1765$): An act of the British Parliament that imposed a direct tax on the colonies, requiring many printed materials to be produced on stamped paper.
• Boston Massacre ($1770$): A fatal incident in which British soldiers fired into a crowd of colonists, significantly escalating tensions.
• Boston Tea Party ($1773$): A political protest by the Sons of Liberty against the Tea Act, involving the destruction of tea shipments in Boston Harbor.
• Coercive Acts ($1774$): A series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in response to the Boston Tea Party, known in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts.
• Declaration of Independence ($1776$): The formal statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress declaring the thirteen colonies independent from British rule.
• Battle of Yorktown ($1781$): The decisive victory by American and French forces that effectively ended the military operations of the American Revolution.

The Early Federal Period and Founding Governance ($1781$–$1798$)

• Articles of Confederation ($1781-1788$): The first written constitution of the United States, which established a weak central government prior to the Constitution.
• Shay's Rebellion ($1787$): An uprising of debt-ridden farmers in Massachusetts that highlighted the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
• Constitutional Convention ($1787$): A landmark meeting in Philadelphia originally intended to revise the Articles of Confederation, which instead resulted in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.
• Ratification of the Constitution ($1788$): The formal process by which the U.S. Constitution was approved by the states, becoming the supreme law of the land.
• Judiciary Act of 1789 ($1789$): An act that established the structure of the federal court system, including the Supreme Court.
• Bill of Rights ($1791$): The first ten amendments to the Constitution, guaranteeing specific civil liberties and rights.
• Cotton Gin ($1793$): The invention of Eli Whitney's mechanical device, which revolutionized the cotton industry and increased the demand for enslaved labor.
• Whiskey Rebellion ($1794$): A protest against the federal excise tax on whiskey, which was suppressed by federal troops under George Washington.
• George Washington's Farewell Address ($1796$): A letter written by the outgoing president advising the nation against permanent foreign alliances and political parties.
• Alien and Sedition Acts ($1798$): Laws passed by the Federalist-controlled Congress that limited the rights of immigrants and restricted speech critical of the government.

Nineteenth-Century Expansion and Reform ($1800$–$1831$)

• Second Great Awakening ($1800-1840$): A widespread Protestant religious revival movement that spurred various social reform movements.
• Louisiana Purchase ($1803$): The acquisition of vast territory from France that nearly doubled the size of the United States.
• Lewis and Clark Expedition ($1804-1806$): A federally funded expedition to explore the newly acquired western lands and find a route to the Pacific Ocean.
• Hartford Convention ($1812$): A meeting of New England Federalists to protest the War of $1812$ and discuss grievances against the federal government.
• Era of Good Feelings ($1817-1824$): A period after the War of $1812$ characterized by a sense of national purpose and a desire for unity among Americans.
• Missouri Compromise ($1820$): Legislation that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, maintaining the sectional balance regarding slavery.
• Monroe Doctrine ($1823$): A fundamental US foreign policy stating that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression.
• Corrupt Bargain ($1824$): A controversial outcome of the Presidential Election of $1824$, in which Henry Clay allegedly helped John Quincy Adams win the presidency in exchange for a cabinet position.
• Nat Turner Rebellion in Virginia ($1831$): A major uprising of enslaved people led by Nat Turner, resulting in stricter slave codes across the South.

Crisis, Expansion, and the Road to Civil War ($1832$–$1861$)

• Nullification Crisis ($1832$): A sectional crisis involving South Carolina's attempt to declare federal tariffs unconstitutional and void within the state.
• Texas War for Independence ($1836$): The military conflict between the government of Mexico and Texas colonists that resulted in the establishment of the Republic of Texas.
• Trail of Tears ($1838-1839$): The forced relocation of Native American tribes, including the Cherokee, from their ancestral lands to designated territory in the west.
• Transcendentalism ($1830s-1840$): A philosophical and literary movement that emphasized intuition, nature, and individual conscience over clerical doctrine.
• Mexican-American War ($1846-1848$): A conflict between the United States and Mexico triggered by territorial disputes over Texas and the American Southwest.
• Seneca Falls Convention ($1848$): The first national women's rights convention, which produced the Declaration of Sentiments.
• Market Revolution ($1830s-1850s$): A period of massive economic transformation characterized by advancements in transportation, communication, and industrial production.
• Kansas-Nebraska Act ($1854$): Law that repealed the Missouri Compromise by allowing popular sovereignty to determine the status of slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska territories.
• Dred Scott Decision ($1856$): A Supreme Court ruling that held that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, were not citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in US territories.
• John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry ($1859$): An abolitionist attempt to initiate an armed slave revolt by seizing a federal arsenal.
• Fort Sumpter, SC ($1861$): The bombardment of this federal fort in South Carolina marked the official beginning of the American Civil War.

Civil War and the Reconstruction Era ($1862$–$1870$)

• Emancipation Proclamation ($1862$): An executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln that declared the freedom of enslaved people in Confederate-held territories.
• Lincoln's Assassination ($1865$): The fatal shooting of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre.
• 13th Amendment ($1865$): The constitutional amendment that formally abolished slavery in the United States.
• 14th Amendment ($1868$): The constitutional amendment granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and ensuring equal protection under the law.
• 15th Amendment ($1870$): The constitutional amendment that prohibited the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

The Gilded Age: Industry, Conflict, and Law ($1876$–$1896$)

• Battle of Little Bighorn ($1876$): A major engagement in the Great Sioux War where Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces defeated the US Army.
• Haymarket Affair ($1886$): A violent incident in Chicago between labor protesters and police that became a symbol for the international struggle for workers' rights.
• Sherman Antitrust Act ($1890$): The first federal law enacted to limit monopolies and regulate business competition.
• Battle of Wounded Knee ($1890$): The final major armed conflict between the Lakota Sioux and the United States military, resulting in a massacre of indigenous people.
• Pullman Strike ($1894$): A nationwide railroad strike that disrupted rail traffic and ended with federal military intervention.
• Plessy v. Ferguson ($1896$): A landmark Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

Global Conflict and the Early Twentieth Century ($1898$–$1929$)

• Spanish-American War ($1898$): A conflict that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in US acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America.
• Annexation of Hawaii ($1898$): The incorporation of the Hawaiian Islands as a territory of the United States.
• WWI ($1914-1918$): The first global war, which the United States entered in $1917$ to join the Allied powers.
• First Red Scare ($1920s$): A period of widespread fear of far-left extremism, including Bolshevism and anarchism, in the United States.
• 18th Amendment ($1919$): The constitutional amendment that established the prohibition of alcoholic beverages.
• 19th Amendment ($1920$): The constitutional amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote.
• Harlem Renaissance ($1920s$): An intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, and theater centered in Harlem.
• Stock Market Crash ($1929$): The major collapse of stock prices that signaled the beginning of the Great Depression.

The New Deal, World War II, and Early Cold War ($1933$–$1953$)

• 21st Amendment ($1933$): The constitutional amendment that repealed the $18$th Amendment, ending Prohibition.
• New Deal ($1933-1942$): A series of programs and financial reforms enacted by Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide relief, recovery, and reform during the Great Depression.
• WWII ($1939-1945$): The second global war, which the US entered after the attack on Pearl Harbor in $1941$.
• Korean War ($1950-1953$): A conflict between North and South Korea in which a United Nations force led by the US intervened to support the South.
• Truman Doctrine ($1947$): A foreign policy offering aid to nations threatened by communist subversion, establishing the principle of containment.
• Marshall Plan ($1948-1952$): A US program providing economic aid to Western Europe to help rebuild after the devastation of World War II.

Civil Rights and Mid-Century Tensions ($1954$–$1969$)

• Brown v. Board of Education ($1954$): The landmark Supreme Court decision that ruled racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
• Montgomery Bus Boycott ($1955$): A seminal civil rights protest in which African Americans refused to ride city buses to protest segregated seating.
• Vietnam War ($1954-1975$): A decades-long conflict in Southeast Asia where the US sought to prevent the spread of communism in South Vietnam.
• Bay of Pigs ($1961$): A failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by CIA-sponsored paramilitaries.
• Berlin Wall ($1961$): The construction of a concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided East and West Berlin.
• Cuban Missile Crisis ($1962$): A tense $13$-day confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union over the installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba.
• March on Washington ($1963$): A massive political rally for civil rights where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution ($1964$): A joint resolution passed by Congress that granted President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to use conventional military force in Southeast Asia.
• Civil Rights Act ($1964$): A landmark labor law and civil rights legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
• Voting Rights Act ($1965$): A landmark piece of federal legislation that prohibited racial discrimination in voting.
• Tet offensive ($1968$): A coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on cities and outposts in South Vietnam that shifted American public opinion against the war.
• Neil Armstrong walked on moon ($1969$): The historic achievement of the first human landing on the lunar surface during the Apollo $11$ mission.

Domestic Scandals and the Late Cold War ($1972$–$1991$)

• Watergate Scandal ($1972$): A major political scandal involving a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and a subsequent cover-up by the Nixon administration.
• Paris Accords ($1973$): The peace treaty signed to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War.
• Oil Embargo ($1973$): A decision by members of OAPEC to stop oil shipments to countries supporting Israel, leading to an energy crisis.
• Iranian Hostage Crisis ($1979-1981$): A diplomatic standoff between the United States and Iran in which $52$ American diplomats and citizens were held hostage.
• Iran-Contras Affair ($1986-1987$): A political scandal involving the secret sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
• Berlin Wall falls ($1989$): The pivotal event that signaled the beginning of the fall of communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War.
• USSR dissolves ($1991$): The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union, marking the total end of the Cold War and the emergence of independent republics.