1488 Bartolomeo Dias sails around Cape of Good Hope 1492 Columbus arrives in New World, Begins European colonization of America 1498 Vasco de Gama sails to India 1517 Martin Luther challenges Catholic beliefs, begins Protestant reformation 1521 Spanish forces led by Cortes defeat the Mexican people led by Montezuma 1530 John Calvin breaks with Catholic Church 1532 Spanish forces led by Pizarro defeat the Incas 1549 The repartimiento reforms begin to replace the encomienda system 1587 Founding of lost colony of Roanoke 1588 British defeat of the Spanish armada 1607 Jamestown founded 1609 Henry Hudson explores area that will become New York 1609-10 Starving time in Virginia 1619 House of Burgesses established 1620 Founding of Plymouth Colony, Mayflower Compact signed 1622 Attack on Jamestown by local Algonquin Indians 1624 New Amsterdam founded by the Dutch 1630 Founding of Massachusetts Bay Colony 1630-40 Great Migration of Puritans from England to Massachusetts 1632 Founding of Georgia Colony 1636 Founding of Rhode Island Colony 1638 Anne Hutchison banned from Massachusetts 1639 The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut are adopted 1649 Act of Religious Toleration passed in Maryland 1662 The Half Way Covenant 1663 Founding of Carolina Colony 1675 King Phillip’s War 1676 Bacon’s Rebellion 1679 The New Hampshire Colony separated from Massachusetts 1680 Pueblo Revolt (Pope’s Rebellion) 1681 Founding of Pennsylvania Colony 1686 Creation of the Dominion of New England 1688 Glorious Revolution 1689 New Englanders Topple Dominion of New England 1692 Salem Witch Trials 1711 Founding of North Carolina Colony 1733 Molasses Act 1735 Zenger Trial 1739 Stono Rebellion 1741 Arrests and Executions in Negro Plot in New York City 1741 Jonathan Edwards’ sermon-Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God 1756-63 French and Indian War 1763 Treaty of Paris Ends French and Indian War 1763 Proclamation Act 1764 Sugar Act 1765 Stamp Act and Stamp Act Congress 1766 Declaratory Act 1767 Townshend Revenue Acts 1770 Boston Massacre 1772 Gaspee Affair 1773 Tea Act and Boston Tea Party 1774 Coercive (intolerable) acts 1774 First Continental Congress 1775 Fighting at Lexington and Concord 1775 Second Continental Congress 1776 Publication of Common Sense by Thomas Paine 1776 Declaration of Independence 1777 Articles of Confederation 1778 Battle of Saratoga 1778 France enters the war on the side of the colonists 1783 Treaty of Parish ends the American Revolution 1781 Articles of Confederation ratified by states 1783 Treaty of Paris signed 1784 First Land Ordninance 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix 1785 Second Land Ordinance 1786 Shay’s Rebellion 1786 Annapolis meeting to revise Articles of Confederation 1787 Northwest Ordinance 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia 1787 Delaware becomes first state to ratify Constitution 1788 Constitution officially ratified (nine states were needed for ratification) The last of the original 13 states (Rhode Islands) ratified the Constitution later (in 1790) 1789 Inauguration of George Washington Judiciary Act Beginning of the French Revolution 1791 Ratification in the Bill of Rights Alexander Hamilton issues Report on Manufacturers The Bank of the United States is approved 1793 War between Great Britain and France Washington Neutrality Proclamation 1794 Whiskey Rebellion Jay’s Treaty 1795 Pinckney’s Treaty 1796 Washington’s Farewell Address 1798 XYZ Affair Quasi War with France Alien and Sedition Acts Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions [11:13:36 PM] Benjamin Hulbert: 1800 Election of Thomas Jefferson 1803 Lousiana Purchase Marbury v. Madison 1804 Reeclection of Jefferson 1807 Chesapeake Affair Embargo Act 1808 Election of James Madison 1810 Fletcher v. Peck 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe 1812 Beginning of the war of 1812 Reelection of Madison 1814 Hartford Convention Treaty of Ghent 1815 Battle of New Orleans 1816 Election of James Monroe Chartering of the Bank of the US 1817 Construction of Erie Canal begins 1819 Panic of 1819 Dartmouth College v. Woodward McCulloch v. Maryland 1820 Missouri Compromise Reelection of James Monroe 1821 Cohen v. Virginia 1821 Opening of the Lowell Factories 1822 Stephen Austin established the first American settlement in Texas 1824 Gibbons v. Ogden Election of John Quincy Adams 1825 Opening of the Erie Canal 1827 Public School movement begins in Boston 1828 Passage of the Tariff of Abominations Election of Andrew Jackson 1829 Publication of David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World 1830 Founding of Mormonism 1830 Passage of the Indian Removal Act Opening of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 1831 Cherokee Nation v. Georgia 1831 William Lloyd Garrison begins publication of the Liberator 1832 Beginning of the Nullification Crisis Jackson vetoes renewal of the Second Bank of the United States Worcester v. Georgia 1833 Founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society 1834 First strike by the Lowell Girls 1835 Publication of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America 1836 Jackson issues Specie Circular 1836 Battle of the Alamo 1836 Texas independence 1836 Congress passes the gag rule 1837 Elijah Lovejoy murdered by proslavery mob 1837 Panic of 1837 1838 Trail of Tears 1840 Election of William Henry Harrison of the Whig Party 1840 Formation of the Liberty Party 1841 Brook Farm founded 1841 John Tyler assumes presidency upon death of Harrison 1843 Dorothea Dix organizes the movement for asylum reform 1844 Samuel Morse invents the telegraph 1844 James Polk elected president Texas annexation 1846 Resolution of the dispute with Great Britain over Oregon Territory Beginning of the Mexican War Wilmot Proviso 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican War Gold found in California 1848 Seneca Falls convention 1850 Compromise of 1850 1851 Herman Melville writes Moby Dick Treaty of Ft Laramie 1852 Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriety Beecher Stowe 1853 Gadsden Purchase 1854 Ostend Manifesto 1854 Kansas Nebraska Act 1856 Beginning of Bleeding Kansas The beating of Charles Sumner 1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford decision 1859 John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry arsenal 1860 Election of President Abraham Lincoln South Carolina secedes from the US 1861 Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln Six more states from the deep south secede Fighting at Fort Sumter Four more states from the Upper South secede 1862 Homestead Act 1863 Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect New York draft riots Battle of Gettysburg Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus 1864 Sherman’s March to the Sea 1865 Freedman’s Bureau is established 13th Amendment is ratified Lincoln is assassinated Southern States begin to pass Black codes The beginning of the Great Sioux War 1866 Civil Rights acts passed Ku Klux Klan is founded Medicine Lodge Treaty establishes the reservation system 1867 Reconstruction Acts passed, beginning of Congressional reconstruction Tenure of Office Act 1868 Andrew Johnson is impeached 14th Amendment is ratified 1869 Founding of the Knights of Labor 1870 15th amendment is ratified 1872 Ulysses S. Grant elected President 1873 US stops coining silver, goes on gold standard 1873 Panic of 1873 1876 Custer’s Last stand Alexander Graham Bell develops the telephone 1877 Agreement ends Reconstruction—Hayes becomes President in Compromise of 1877 Great railroad strike Munn v. Illinois 1878 Formation of Greenback party 1879 Thomas A. Edison develops the lightbulb 1880 James Garfield (republican) elected President 1881 President Garfield assassinated Chester B. Arthur becomes President 1881 Helen Hunt Jackson publishes A century of Dishonor 1882 The formation of Standard Oil Trust 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act 1883 Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge 1883 Passage of Pendleton Act 1884 Democrat Grover Cleveland is elected President 1886 Founding of the American Federation of Labor Haymarket Bombing Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Co. v. Illinois 1887 Dawes Severalty Act 1887 Opening of the first subway system in the US (Boston) 1887 Interstate Commerce Act 1888 Republican Benjamin Harrison is elected President 1890 Beginning of Ghost Dance Movement Massacre at Wounded Knee Sherman Anti Trust Act 1892 Homestead Lockout 1892 Democrat Grover Cleveland elected President again 1892 Formation of the People’s Populist party, Omaha Platform 1893 Panic of 1893 1893 Queen Liliuokalani is toppled by a coalition of US marines and businessmen 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition 1893 Economic Downturn following the Panic of 1893 1894 Pullman Strike 1894 Coxey’s Army march to Washington DC 1895 US v. EC Knight Company 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 William Jennings Bryan’s Cross of Gold speech Republican William McKinley is elected President 1898 Spanish American War Sinking of the Maine Annexation of Hawaii Formation of American Anti Imperialist League Treaty of Paris 1899-1900 Secretary of state john Hay establishes Open Door Policy in China 1899 White Man’s Burden by Kipling 1899-1902 Phillipine and American War [11:13:56 PM] Benjamin Hulbert: 1900 McKinley elected President 1901 President McKinley assassinated 1903 The US acquires the Panama Canal Zone (canal completed in 1914) 1904 Theodore Roosevelt elected President 1904 Northern Securities v. US 1905 Founding of the Niagra Movement 1906 Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize Publication of the Jungle by Upton Sinclair The Meat Inspection Act Passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act The Hepburn Act 1908 William Howard Taft elected President 1909 Creation of the NAACP 1910 The Mann Act 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire 1911 Muller v. Oregon 1912 Democrat Woodrow Wilson elected President 1913 Henry Ford introduces the conveyor belt to automobile production 1913 Sixteenth Amendment (federal income tax) is ratified Seventeenth Amendment (direct election of senators) is ratified 1914-17 US intervention in Mexico 1914 The Federal Reserve Act The Federal Trade Commission The Clayton Anti trust Act 1914 Beginning of World War I 1915 Release of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation 1916 the reelection of Woodrow Wilson 1917 The Espionage Act 1917 Zimmerman Telegram 1917 US enters World War II 1918 Wilson’s Fourteen Points 1918 US rejects Treaty of VErsailles 1918 The Sedition Act Armistice ends World War I 1919 The Eighteenth Amendment (prohibition) is ratified Creation of the Comintern The deportation of Emma Goldman Schenck v. US 1919 The Seattle General Strike 1919-20 Boston Police Strike 1920 Palmer Raids 1920 The Nineteenth Amendment (women’s right to vote) is ratified 1920 Election of Warren G. Harding 1921 Emergency Quota Act Beginning of Teapot Dome Scandal 1923 President Harding dies, Coolidge becomes President 1924 National Origins Act Election of Calvin Coolidge 1925 Scopes Trial 1927 Execution of Sacco and Vanzetti 1928 Election of Herbert Hoover 1928 The Kellogg Brand Act 1928 Herbert Hoover elected President 1929 Stock Market crash Great Depression begins 1930 Hawley Smoot Tariff 1931 Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup is released 1932 The Bonus March Reconstruction Finance Corporation is established Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President 1933 The 100 days Bank Holiday Agricultural Adjustment Act Glass-Steagall Act (FDIC established) National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) Civilian Conservation Corps Tennessee Valley Authority 1933 Ratification of the 21 st amendment (repeal of prohibition) 1934 Clifford Odets writes the play Waiting for Lefty Share our Wealth Clubs started by Huey P. Long Securities and Exchange Commission 1935 National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) Social Security Act Schechter v. NY case strikes down NIRA Work Progress Administration First Neutrality Act 1936 Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times is released Roosevelt’s Court packing plan Roosevelt elected to Second Term 1936-39 Spanish Civil War 1937 Roosevelt recession Farm Security Administration Panay Incident Quarantine Speech 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is released 1939 John Steinbeck writes the Grapes of Wrath 1939 Cash and Carry Policy Nazi Soviet Pact 1940 Roosevelt elected to an unprecedented third term Selective Service Act Lend Lease Act Tripartite Pact 1941 Lend Lease Act Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor 1942 Battle of the Midway and Battle of Coral Sea 1943 The Tehran Conference 1943 Landing in Sicily 1944 Korematsu v. US The Bretton Woods Conference The GI bill is passed [11:14:00 PM] Benjamin Hulbert: 1945 Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa the Yalta Conference The Potsdam Conference Dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1946 Baby and Child Care by Dr. Benjamin Spock Largest wave of strikes in US history 1947 Publication of X Article (sources of soviet conduct) by George Kennan The Truman Doctrine (containment +) is announced $400 million in military aid to Greece and Turkey House un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Hollywood Taft Hartley Act 1948 Beginning of the Berlin blockade Election of Harry S. Truman 1948 Beginning of Marshall Plan 1949 Formation of NATO 1950 Senator Joseph McCArthy gains public spotlight on anticommunism NSC-68 is adopted The beginning of the Korean War Passage of the McCarran Internal Security Act 1951 Truman fires General Douglas MacArthur The US tests the world’s first hydrogen bomb 1952 Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Army-McCarthy hearings Election of Dwight D. Eisenhower as President 1953 End of the Korean War 1954 Interstate Highway Act Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 1955 Creation of Warsaw Pact 1956 Rosa Parks is arrested for not giving up her seat; Montgomery Bus Boycott Reelection of Eisenhower 1957 Soviet launch of Sputnik satellite Founding of Southern Christian Leadership Conference Crisis in Little Rock, AR over school desegregation On the Road by Jack Kerouac 1960 Soviet Union shoots down U-2 spy plane Lunch Counter sit in movement begins Election of John F. Kennedy 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba Freedom Rides begin Peace Corps Founded Mapp v Ohio (no fruits of illegal searches) 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis Engel v. Vitale (state mandated prayer unconstitutional) Formation of United Farm Workers 1963 Campaign to desegregate Birmingham, AL Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream speech-March on Washington Assassination of President Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President Gideon v. Wainwright (right to counsel) 1964 Civil Rights Act passed Beginning of the Great Society Freedom Summer voter registration drive in Mississippi Killing of Civil Rights workers Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman Gulf of Tonkin Resolution Election of Lyndon B. Johnson 1965 Voting Rights Act Malcolm X is assassinated Selma to Montgomery, AL march Griswold v. Connecticut (contraception-right to privacy) 1966 Founding of the Black Panthers Baker v. Carr (one person one vote_ 1965 Involvement in Vietnam—Domino Theory 1967 Summer of Love Rioting in Detroit, Newark 1968 Tet Offensive My Lai Massacre Assassination of Martin Luther King Assassination of Robert Kennedy Violence at Democratic Convention Election of Richard Nixon Founding of American Indian Movement 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines (armbands ok) 1969 Brandenburg v. Ohio (no restriction on inflammatory speech) Woodstock Festival Stonewall Riot in NYC (birth of gay liberation) Apollo 11 lands on the moon 1970 President Nixon widens the Vietnam War into Cambodia Four students killed by National Guard at Kent State Protest First Earth Day-beginning of environmental movement 1971 Publication of Pentagon Papers in the NY Times 1972 Arrest of burglars at the Watergate Complex Reelection of Richard Nixon 1973 Congressional hearings on Watergate Roe v. Wade 1974 Nixon resigns the presidency; Gerald Ford assumes presidency Ford grants Nixon a complete pardon 1976 Election of Jimmy Carter 1977 Bakke v. Regents of UC (no quotas but affirmative action ok) 1978 Panama Canal Treaty turns Panama Canal back Camp David accords 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident Formation of the Moral Majority Soviet invasion of Afghanistan Iranian students sieve US embassy; hold hostages for over a year 1980 US boycotts Moscow Olympics Election of Ronald Reagan 1981 Release of American hostages held in Iran Reagan fires striking air traffic controllers First female Supreme Court justice appointed 1984 Reelection of Ronald Reagan 1986 Reagan Doctrine Savings and Loan crisis 1987 Iran Contra hearings 1988 Election of George H.W. Bush 1989 Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe Savings and Loan bailout 1991 Operation Desert Storm Collapse of Soviet Union 1992 Election of Bill Clinton 1993 Fighting in Mogadishu Somalia Ratification of North American Free Trade Agreement 1994 House Republicans issue the Contract with America Both houses shift to Republican control 1996 Reelection of Bill Clinton Welfare reform 1998 Impeachment of President Clinton 2000 Election of George W. Bush 2001 Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in NYC and the Pentagon in DC 2001 Afghanistan attacked Passage of Patriot Act 2003 War with Iraq begun 2004 Reelction of President Bush 2005 Hurrican Katrina 2008 Election of Barack Obama 2009 Obama appoints first Latina to Supreme Court Health Care reform passed