| 1430 | Portuguese start voyages down the west coast of Africa |
| 1492 | Columbus arrives in Western Hemisphere |
| 1509-1547 | Henry VIII rules England Protestant reformation begins in England |
| 1558-1603 | Reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Ireland conquered by England. |
| 1607 | Jamestown founded |
| 1612 | Tobacco made a profitable crop by John Rolfe |
| 1619 | First group of blacks brought to Virginia First legislative assembly meets in Virginia |
| 1620 | First Pilgrims in Plymouth |
| 1622 | Indian attacks in Virginia end hopes of becoming a bi-racial society |
| 1629 | Great Puritan migration to Massachusetts Bay |
| 1636 | Harvard founded |
| 1676 | Bacon's Rebellion |
| 1686 | Creation of Dominion of New England |
| 1688 | Glorious Revolution in England |
| 1700 | 250,000 settlers in English colonies |
| 1704 | First colonial newspaper |
| 1720s | Colonial economic life quickens |
| 1739-1744 | Great Awakening |
| 1756-1763 | French and Indian War |
| 1763 | Proclamation Line established |
| 1763-1764 | Pontiac's Rebellion |
| 1764-1765 | Sugar Act and Stamp Act Controversies |
| 1766 | Declaratory Act |
| 1767 | Townshend Act, New York Assembly suspended |
| 1770 | Boston Massacre |
| 1772 | Committees of Correspondence formed |
| 1773 | Boston Tea Party |
| 1774 | Coercive Acts, First Continental Congress convenes |
| 1775 | Revolution begins with fighting at Lexington and Concord |
| 1776 | Declaration of Independence |
| 1777 | British defeated at Saratoga |
| 1778 | French join the war against the British |
| 1781 | Battle of Yorktown Articles of Confederation ratified |
| 1783 | Peace signed in Paris |
| 1784-1787 | Northwest Ordinance of 1784, 1785, and 1787 |
| 1786 | Annapolis Convention |
| 1787 | Shays' Rebellion Constitutional Convention |
| 1788 | Federalist Papers written Constitution ratified |
| 1789 | George Washington inaugurated as President of the United States French Revolution begins |
| 1790 | Capital placed on the Potomac River |
| 1793 | Citizen Genet |
| 1794 | Whiskey Rebellion Indians defeated at Fallen Timbers |
| 1795 | Jay Treaty, Pinckney Treaty |
| 1798 | Un-declared war with France Alien and Sedition Acts Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions |
| 1800 | Jefferson elected |
| 1803 | Louisiana Purchase |
| 1807-1809 | Embargo in effect |
| 1808 | Slave trade ended |
| 1809 | Non-intercourse Act |
| 1812 | War with England |
| 1814 | Treaty of Ghent |
| 1820 | Missouri Compromise |
| 1820s | First labor unions formed Romanticism flourished in America |
| 1823 | Monroe Doctrine |
| 1828 | Andrew Jackson elected |
| 1830s | Railroad era begins |
| 1831 | Nat Turner's rebellion Liberator founded |
| 1832 | Nullification crisis |
| 1834 | Whig party formed |
| 1835 | Texas Revolution, Republic of Texas established |
| 1840s | Manifest Destiny Telegraph and railroads create a communications revolution |
| 1846 | Mexican War begins |
| 1848 | Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo ended Mexican War. U. S. acquires California and territory of New Mexico which includes present-day Nevada, Utah, Arizona, new Mexico, and part of Colorado. |
| 1849 | Gold discovered in California |
| 1850 | Compromise of 1850 California admitted to the union Fugitive Slave Law strengthened |
| 1853 | Gadsden Purchase |
| 1854 | Kansas-Nebraska Act Republican Party formed |
| 1856 | Violence in Kansas Senator Sumner attacked in the Senate |
| 1858 | Lincoln-Douglas Debates |
| 1859 | John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry |
| 1860 | Democratic Party splits apart Abraham Lincoln elected 16th President of the United States Lower South secedes |
| 1861 | Confederate States of America formed Civil War begins at Fort Sumter Upper South secedes North is defeated at the first battle of Bull Run |
| 1862 | Battle of Antietam Morill Tariff, Homestead Act Emancipation Proclamation issued (effective January 1, 1863) |
| 1864 | Grant's wilderness campaign Sherman takes Atlanta Sherman's "March to the Sea" |
| 1865 | Sherman takes South and North Carolina Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery Lincoln assassinated Andrew Johnson becomes President KKK formed |
| 1867 | First Reconstruction Act launches Radical Reconstruction Alaska purchased |
| 1868 | Fourteenth Amendment guarantees Civil Rights Johnson impeached |
| 1870 | Fifteenth Amendment forbids denial of vote on racial grounds |
| 1870s | Terrorism against blacks in South, flourishing of Darwinism and ideas of racial inferiority |
| 1876 | End of Reconstruction Battle of Little Big Horn |
| 1877 | Munn v. Illinois: Court rules states may regulate warehouse rates |
| 1879 | Stand Oil Trust formed |
| 1880s | Big Business emerge |
| 1883 | Railroad companies divide nation into four time zones Pendleton Civil Service Act |
| 1886 | Haymarket Riots |
| 1887 | Interstate Commerce Commission Davies Act |
| 1890 | Sherman Anti-Trust Act Massacre at Wounded Knee Sherman Silver Purchase Act |
| 1890-1920 | Fifteen million "new" immigrants |
| 1893 | Repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act |
| 1895 | Pollock v Farmers Court strikes down income tax |
| 1898 | War with Spain Hawaii annexed |
| 1899 | Peace with Spain, U. S. receives Philippines, Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico |
| 1900 | Gold Standard |
| 1901 | Theodore Roosevelt becomes President |
| 1904 | Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine |
| 1904-1914 | Panama Canal built |
| 1906 | Hepburn Act, Pure Food and Drug Act The Jungle |
| 1912 | Election of Woodrow Wilson |
| 1913 | Sixteen Amendment authorizing income tax ratified Seventeenth Amendment providing for direct elections of Senators ratified Federal Reserve System begun Wilson broadens segregation in civil service |
| 1914 | World War 1 begins U. S. troops occupy Vera Cruz |
| 1915 | U. S. troops sent to Haiti Lusitania sunk, U. S. intervened KKK revived |
| 1916 | Germany issues Sussex pledge |
| 1917 | Russian Revolution U. S. enters WW1 |
| 1918 | WW1 ends Treaty of Versailles |
| 1919 | Eighteenth Amendment prohibits alcoholic beverages Red Scare |
| 1920 | Nineteenth Amendment gives women the right to vote First radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh |
| 1921 | Washington Naval Conference |
| 1924 | Revenue Act slashes income tax on wealthy and corporations |
| 1927 | Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic |
| 1929 | Stock market crashes |
| 1932 | Franklin Roosevelt elected |
| 1933 | Bank holiday, "Hundred Days" NRA, AAA, FDIC, TVA, FERA, CCC Twentieth Amendment changes inauguration day to January Twenty-first Amendment repeals prohibition Hitler comes to power in Germany |
| 1934 | Gold standard terminated SEC |
| 1935 | Social Security Act, WP, NLRA CIO formed U. S. Begins neutrality legislation |
| 1936 | FDR re-elected |
| 1937 | FDR attempts to pack Supreme Court Japan invades China |
| 1938 | United States Housing Authority Fair labor Standards Act Hitler takes Austria, Munich Agreement |
| 1939 | World War 2 begins |
| 1940 | Roosevelt makes destroyers-for-bases deal with the British Fall of France First peacetime draft |
| 1941 | Lend-Lease, Battle of Britain, Hitler attacks USSR Atlantic Charter Japan attacks Pearl Harbor |
| 1942 | Allied year of disaster U. S. interns Japanese U. S. halts Japanese at Coral Sea and Midway |
| 1943 | Tide turns against Axis Russia wins at Stalingrad, unconditional surrender demanded Italy invaded |
| 1944 | France invaded Bombing of Japan begins Russia sweeps through Eastern Europe Philippines liberated |
| 1945 | Yalta FDR dies Germany surrenders Atom bombs End of WW 2 |
| 1976 | U. S. - USSR relations worsen "Iron Curtain" speech |
| 1947 | Cold War begins Marshall Plan Containment |
| 1948-1949 | Berlin Airlift Taft-Hartley Military integrated |
| 1949 | NATO Russia explodes the bomb Communists control China |
| 1950 | Korean War Joseph McCarthy |
| 1951 | Twenty-second Amendment limits the President to two terms |
| 1952 | Dwight Eisenhower elected President |
| 1953 | Industries agree on guaranteed annual wage |
| 1954 | Brown v. Board of Education, Supreme Court strikes down "separate but
equal." Vietnam divided |
| 1955 | Montgomery Bus Boycott, emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr. |
| 1957 | Sputnik Eisenhower Doctrine Little rock Crisis Civil Rights Act |
| 1958 | First U. S. satellite and ICBM NASA U. S. occupies Lebanon |
| 1960 | U-2 shot down over Russia Soviet and Chinese split John F. Kennedy elected President non-violent protests against segregation |
| 1961 | Freedom rides Twenty-third Amendment gives District of Columbia the right to vote for President Berlin crisis Peace Corps Bay of Pigs 16,000 in Vietnam |
| 1962 | University of Mississippi integrated Cuban Missile Crisis |
| 1963 | Civil Rights march on Washington JFK assassinated Feminine Mystique |
| 1964 | Free speech movement at Berkeley Beatles Twenty-fourth Amendment outlaws the poll tax War on poverty Gulf of Tonkin |
| 1965 | Great Society Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam Malcolm X assassinated |
| 1966 | Black Power France withdraws from NATO N. O. W. formed |
| 1967 | Detroit Riot Peace movement in the U. S. |
| 1968 | Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther Kin murdered Tet Offensive Johnson won't seek re-election Richard Nixon elected President |
| 1969 | Vietnamization First man on the moon Nixon proposed New Federalism |
| 1970 | Massacre at Kent State EPA established Cambodian invasion creates anti-war turbulence SALT talks begin |
| 1971 | Nixon opens talks with China Wage-price controls My Lai massacre revealed Pentagon Papers published |
| 1972 | Intensive bombing of North Vietnam Watergate Nixon re-elected GNP over 1 trillion |
| 1973 | Cease-fire in Vietnam U. S. forces withdraw Spiro Agnew resigns |
| 1974 | Watergate tapes Nixon resigns, Ford's pardon Serious inflation and recession |
| 1975 | Vietnam falls 44% of married women employed |
| 1976 | Bicentennial Jimmy Carter elected President |
| 1977 | Human rights |
| 1978 | Camp David Accords Panama Canal treaties ratified |
| 1979 | SALT 2 completed U. S. recognizes china American Embassy in Iran occupied USSR invaded Afghanistan |
| 1980 | U. S. boycotts Olympics, withdraws from SALT 2 Reagan elected President |
| 1981 | American hostages held in Iran freed on Reagan's inauguration day |
Updated on September 5, 2006