c. 33,000 – 8,000 B.C. First humans cross into Americas from Asia
c. 5000 B.C Corn is developed as a staple crop in highland Mexico
c. 4000 B.C. Frist civilized societies develop in the Middle East
c. 1200 B.C. Corn planting reaches present-day American Southwest
c. A.D. 1000 Norse voyages discover and briefly settle in northeastern North America
Corn cultivation reaches Midwest and southeastern Atlantic seaboard
c. A.D. 1100 Height of Mississippi settlement at Cahokia
c. A.D. 1100-1300 Christian crusades arouse European interest in the East
1295 Marco Polo returns to Europe
Late 1400s Spain becomes united
1488 Díaz rounds southern tip of Africa
1492 Columbus lands in the Bahamas
1494 Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal
1498 Da Gama reaches India
Cabot explores northeastern coast of North America for England
1513 Balboa claims all lands touched by the Pacific Ocean for Spain
1513, 1521 Ponce de León explores Florida
1517 Martin Luther begins Protestant Reformation
1519- 1521 Cortés conquers Mexico for Spain
1522 Magellan’s vessel completes circumnavigation of the world
1524 Verrazano explores eastern seaboard of North America for France
1532 Pizarro crushes Incans
1534 Cartier journeys up the St. Lawrence River
1536 John Calvin of Geneva publishes Institutes of the Christian Religion
1539- 1542 De Soto explores the Southeast and discovers the Mississippi River
1540-1542 Coronado explores present-day Southwest
1542 Cabrillo explores California coast for Spain
1558 Elizabeth I becomes queen of England
1565 Spanish build fortress at St. Augustine
c. 1565-1590 English crush Irish uprising
1577 Drake circumnavigates the globe
1585 Raleigh founds “lost colony” at Roanoke
1588 England defeats Spanish Armada
Late 1500s Iroquois Confederacy founded, according to Iroquois legend
1598 Edict of Nantes
c. 1598- 1609 Spanish under Oñate conquer Pueblo peoples of Rio Grande valley
1603 James I becomes king of England
1604 Spain and England sign peace treaty
1607 Virginia colony founded at Jamestown
1608 Champlain colonizes Quebec for France
1609 Spanish found New Mexico
1612 Rolfe perfects tobacco culture in Virginia
1614 First Anglo-Powhatan War ends
1619 First Africans arrive in Jamestown
Virginia House of Burgesses established
1620 Pilgrims sail on Mayflower to Plymouth Bay
1624 Virginia becomes royal colony
Dutch found New Netherlands
1625 Population of English colonies in America about 2,000
1629 Charles I dismisses Parliament and persecutes Puritans
1630 Puritans found Massachusetts Bay Colony
1634 Maryland colony founded
1635- 1636 Roger Williams convicted of heresy and founds Rhode Island colony
1636 Harvard College founded
1635- 1638 Connecticut and New Haven colonies founded
1637 Pequot War
1638 Anne Hutchinson banished from Massachusetts colony
1639 Connecticut’s Fundamental Orders drafted
1640s Large scale slave-labor system established in English West Indies
1642- 1648 English Civil War
1643 New England Confederation formed
Louis XIV becomes king of France
1644 Second Anglo-Powhatan War
1649 Act of Toleration in Maryland
Charles I beheaded, Cromwell rules England
1650 William Bradford completes Of Plymouth Plantation
First Navigation Laws to control colonial commerce
1655 New Netherlands conquers New Sweden
1660 Charles II restored to English throne
1661 Barbados slave code adopted
1662 Half-Way Covenant for Congregational Church membership established
1664 England seizes New Netherlands from Dutch
East and West Jersey colonies founded
1670 Carolina colony created
Virginia assembly disfranchises landless freemen
1675- 1676 King Philips War
1676 Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia
1680s French expedition down Mississippi River to Gulf of Mexico under La Salle (1682)
Mass expansion of slavery in colonies
1681 William Penn founds Pennsylvania colony
1686 Royal authority creates Dominion of New England
1688-1689 Glorious Revolution overthrows Stuarts and Dominion of New England
1689-1691 Leisler’s Rebellion in New York
1689-1697 King Williams War (War of the League of Augsburg)
1692 Salem witch trials in Massachusetts
1693 College of William and Mary founded
1696 Board of Trade assumes governance of colonies
1698 Royal African Company slave trade monopoly ended
1700s First Shaker communities formed
c. 1700-1800 New Indian peoples move onto Great Plains
1700 Population of English colonies in America about 250,000
1701 Yale College founded
1702-1713 Queen Anne’s War (War of Spanish Succession)
1711- 1713 Tuscarora War in North Carolina
1712 North Carolina formally separates from South Carolina
New York City slave revolt
1715- 1716 Yamasee War in South Carolina
1718 French found New Orleans
1721 Smallpox inoculation introduced
1732 First edition of Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack
1733 Georgia colony founded
1734 Jonathan Edwards begins Great Awakening
1734-1735 Zenger free-press trial in New York
1738 George Whitefield spreads Great Awakening
1739 South Carolina slave revolt
War of Jenkins’s Ear
1744-1748 King George’s War (War of Austrian Succession)
1746 Princeton College founded
c. 1750 Industrial Revolution begins in Britain
1754 Washington battles French on frontier
Albany Plan
1754-1763 Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War)
1755 Braddock’s defeat
1757 Pitt emerges as leader of British government
1759 Battle of Quebec
1760 Britain vetoes South Carolina anti-slave trade measures
1763 Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War) Ends
Peace of Paris
Pontiac’s uprising
Proclamation of 1763
1764 Paxton Boys march on Philadelphia
Brown College founded
Sugar Act
1765 Quartering Act
Stamp Act
Stamp Act Congress
1766 Rutgers College founded
Declaratory Act
1767 Townshend Acts
New York legislature suspended by Parliament
1768 British troops occupy Boston
1769-1771 Regulator protests
1769 Serra founds first California mission, at San Diego
Dartmouth College founded
1770 Boston Massacre
All Townshend Acts except tea tax repealed
1772 Committees of correspondence formed
1773 British East India Company granted tea monopoly
Governor Hutchinson’s actions provoke Boston Tea Party
1774 “Intolerable Acts”
Quebec Act
First Continental Congress meets (calls for abolition of slave trade)
The Association boycotts British goods
1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord
Second Continental Congress
Americans capture British garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point
Battle of Bunker Hill
King George III formally proclaims colonies in rebellion
Failed invasion of Canada
Philadelphia Quakers found world’s first antislavery society
1776 Paine’s Common Sense
Declaration of Independence
Battle of Trenton
New Jersey constitution temporarily gives women the vote
1777 Battle of Brandywine
Battle of Germantown
Battle of Saratoga
Articles of Confederation adopted by Second Continental Congress
1778 Formation of French-American alliance
Battle of Monmouth
1778-1779 Clark’s victories in the West
1780 Massachusetts adopts first constitution drafted in convention and ratified by popular vote
1781 Battle of King’s Mountain
Battle of Cowpens
Greene leads Carolina campaign
French and Americans force Cornwallis to surrender at Yorktown
Articles of Confederation put into effect
1782 North’s ministry collapses in Britain
1783 Treaty of Paris
Military officers from Society of the Cincinnati
1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix
1785 Land Ordinance of 1785
1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
Shay’s Rebellion
Meeting of five states to discuss revisions of the Articles of Confederation
1787 Northwest Land Ordinance of 1787
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
1788 Ratification by nine states guarantees a new government under the Constitution
1789 Constitution formally put into effect
Judiciary Act of 1789
Washington elected president
French Revolution begins
1790 First official census
1791 Bill of Rights adopted
Vermont becomes fourteenth state
Bank of the United Sates created Excise tax passed
Samuel Slater builds first U.S. textile factory
1792 Washington reelected president
1792-1793 Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties formed
1793 Louis XVI beheaded; radical phase of French Revolution
France declares war on Britain and Spain
Washington’s Neutrality Proclamation
Citizen Genêt affair
Eli Whitney invents cotton gin (Transforms southern economy)
1794 Whiskey Rebellion
Battle of Fallen Timbers
Jay’s Treaty with Britain
Thomas Paine publishes The Age of Reason
1795 Treaty of Greenville: Indian cede Ohio
Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain
University of North Carolina founded
1796 Washington’s Farewell Address
1797 Adams becomes president
XYZ Affairs
1798 Whitney develops interchangeable parts for muskets
1798-1799 Virginia and Kentucky resolutions
1798-1800 Undeclared war with France
1800 Convention of 1800: peace with France
Jefferson defeats Adams for presidency (“Revolution” of 1800)
Second Great Awakening begins
Gabriel slave rebellion in Virginia
1801 Judiciary Act of 1801
1801-1805 Naval war with Tripoli
1802 Revised naturalization law
Judiciary Act of 1801 repealed
1803 Marbury v. Madison
Louisiana Purchase
1804 Jefferson reelected president
Impeachment of Justice Chase
1804-1806 Lewis and Clark expedition
1805 Peace treaty with Tripoli
1805-1807 Pike’s explorations
1806 Burr treason trial
1807 Chesapeake affair
Embargo Act
Robert Fulton’s first steamboat
Embargo spurs American manufacturing
1808 Madison elected president
Congress outlaws slave trade
1809 Non-Intercourse Act replaces Embargo Act
1810 Macon’s Bill No. 2
Napoleon announces (falsely) repeal of blockade decrees
Madison reestablishes nonimportation against Britain
Fletcher v. Peck ruling asserts right of the Supreme Court to invalidate state laws deemed unconstitutional
1811 Battle of Tippecanoe
Cumberland Road construction begins
1812 United States declares war on Britain
Madison reelected president
1812-1813 American invasion of Canada fails
1813 Battle of the Thames
Battle of Lake Erie
1814 Battle of Plattsburg
British burn Washington
Battle of Horseshoe Bend
Treaty of Ghent signed ending War of 1812
1814-1815 Hartford Convention
1815 Battle of New Orleans
1816 Second Bank of the United Sates founded
Protectionist Tariff of 1816
Monroe elected president
1817 Madison vetoes Calhoun’s Bonus Bill
Rush-Bagot agreement limits naval armament on Great Lakes
Eire Canal construction begins
American Colonization Society formed
1818 Treaty of 1818 with Britain
Jackson invades Florida
1819 Panic of 1819
Spain cedes Florida to United States
McCulloch v. Maryland
Dartmouth College v. Woodward
Jefferson founds University of Virginia
1820 Missouri Compromise
Missouri and Maine admitted to Union
Land Act of 1820
Monroe reelected
New England missionaries arrive in Hawaii
1821 Cohens v. Virginia
James Fennimore Cooper publishes The Spy, his first successful novel
Emma Willard establishes Troy (New York) Female Seminary
1822 Vesey slave conspiracy in Charleston, South Carolina
Republic of Liberia established in Africa
1823 Secretary Adams proposes Monroe Doctrine
Mexico opens Texas to American settlers
1824 Russo-American Treaty of 1824
Gibbons v. Ogden
Lack of electoral majority for presidency throws election into the House of Representatives
1825 Erie Canal completed
House elects John Quincy Adams president
New Harmony commune established
1826 American Temperance Society founded
1828 Tariff of 1828 (“Tariff of Abomination”)
Jackson elected President
The South Carolina Exposition published
First railroad in the United Sates
Noah Webster publishes dictionary
American Peace Society founded
1829 David Walker publishes Appeal to the Colored Citizen of the World
1830s Cyrus McCormick invents mechanical mower-reaper
1830 Indian Removal Act
Joseph Smith founds Mormon Church
Godey’s Lady’s Book first published
1830-1831 Charles Grandison Finney conducts revivals in eastern cities
1831 Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia
Garrison begins publishing The Liberator
1831-1832 Virginia legislature debates slavery and emancipation
1832 “Bank War” – Jackson vetoes bill to recharter Bank of the United States
Tariff of 1832
Black Hawk War
Jackson defeats Clay for Presidency
1832-1833 South Carolina nullification crisis
1833 Compromise Tariff of 1833
Jackson removes federal deposits from Bank of the United States
British abolish slavery in the West Indies
American Anti-Slavery Society founded
1834 Anti-Catholic riot in Boston
Abolitionist students expelled from Lane Theological Seminary
1835 Lyceum movement flourishes
U.S. Post Office orders destruction of abolitionist mail
“Broadcloth Mob” attacks Garrison
1836 Bank of the United States expires
Specie Circular issued
Bureau of Indian Affairs established
Battle of the Alamo
Battle of San Jacinto
Texas wins independence from Mexico
Van Buren elected president
House of Representatives passes “Gag Resolution”
1837 Seminole Indians defeated and eventually removed from Florida
United States recognizes Texas republic but refuses annexation
Panic of 1837
John Deere develops steel plow
Oberlin College admits female students
Mary Lyon establishes Mount Holyoke Seminary
Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers “The American Scholar” address
Mob kills abolitionist Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois
Canadian rebellion and Caroline incident
1838-1839 Cherokee Indians removed on “Trail of Tears”
1839 Theodore Dwight Weld publishes American Slavery as It Is
1840 Independent treasury established
Harrison defeats Van Buren for Presidency
President Van Buren establishes ten-hour day for federal employees
Antislavery Liberty party organized
1841 Brook Farm commune established
Harrison dies after four weeks in office
Tyler assumes presidency
1842 Massachusetts declares labor unions legal in Commonwealth v. Hunt
Aroostook War over Maine boundary
Webster-Ashburn treaty
1844 Polk defeats Clay in “Manifest Destiny” election
1843 Dorthea Dix petitions Massachusetts legislature on behalf of the insane
1843-1868 Era of Clipper ships
1844 Samuel Morse invents telegraph
Anti-Catholic riot in Philadelphia
Caleb Cushing signs Treaty of Wanghia with China
1845-1849 Potato famine in Ireland
1845 Fredrick Douglass publishes Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass
United States annexes Texas
1846 Elias Howe invents sewing machine
Walker Tariff
Independent treasury restored
United States settles Oregon dispute with Britain
United States and Mexico clash over Texas border
Kearney takes Santa Fe
Frémont conquers California
Wilmot Proviso passes House of Representatives
1846-1847 Mormon migration to Utah
1847 Battle of Buena Vista
Scott takes Mexico City
1846-1848 Mexican-American War
1848 First general incorporation laws in New York
Democratic revolutions collapse in Germany
Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention held
Oneida Community established
Free Soil party organized
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (ends Mexican-American War)
Taylor defeats Cass and Van Buren for presidency
1849 Americans, or Know-Nothing, Party formed
California Gold Rush
1850 Nathanial Hawthorne publishes The Scarlet Letter
Fillmore assumes presidency after Taylor’s death
Compromise of 1850, including Fugitive Slave Law
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Britain
1851 Herman Melville publishes Moby Dick
Maine passes first law prohibiting liquor
1852 Cumberland Road completed
Pierce defeats Scoot for Presidency
Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin
1853 Gadsden Purchase from Mexico
1854 Commodore Perry opens Japan
Ostend Manifesto proposes seizure of Cuba
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Republican Party organized
Kansas-Nebraska Act
1855 Walt Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass
1856 William Walker becomes president of Nicaragua and legalizes slavery
Buchanan defeats Frémont and Fillmore for presidency
Sumner beaten by Brooks in Senate chamber
Brown’s Pottawatomie Massacre
1856-1860 Civil war in “bleeding Kansas”
1857 Dred Scott decision
Lecompton Constitution rejected
Panic of 1857
Tariff of 1857
Hinton R. Helper Publishes The Impending Crisis of the South
1858 Cyrus field lays first transatlantic cable
Lincoln-Douglass debates
Pikes Peak gold rush
1859 Brown raids Harpers Ferry
Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species
Nevada Comstock Lode discovered
1860 Pony Express established
Lincoln wins four-way race for presidency
South Carolina secedes from the Union
Crittenden Compromise fails
1861 First transcontinental telegraph
Seven seceding states from Confederate States of America
Confederate government formed
Lincoln takes office (March 4)
Fort Sumter fired upon (April 12)
Four upper South states secede (April – June)
Morrill Tariff Act passed
Trent affair
Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus
First Battle of Bull Run
1862 Confederacy enacts conscription Homestead Act
Grant takes Fort Henry and Fort Donelson
Battle of Shiloh
McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign
Seven Days’ Battles
Second Battle of Bull Run
Naval battle of the Merrimack (the Virginia) and the Monitor
Battle of Antietam
Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
Battle of Fredericksburg
Northern army seizes New Orleans
Congress authorizes transcontinental railroad
Morrill Act provides public land for higher education
Homestead Act
1862-1864 Alabama raids Northern shipping
1863 Union enacts conscription
New York City draft riots
National Banking System established
Final Emancipation Proclamation
Battle of Chancellorsville
Battle of Gettysburg
Fall of Vicksburg
Fall of Port Hudson
Lincoln announces “10 percent” Reconstruction plan
1863-1864 Napoleon III installs Archduke Maximilian as emperor of Mexico
1864 Alabama sunk by Union warship
Sherman’s march through Georgia
Grant’s Wilderness Campaign
Battle of Cold Harbor
Lincoln defeats McClellan for presidency
Lincoln vetoes Wade-Davis Bill
Sand Creek massacre
Nevada admitted to Union
1865 Hampton Roads Conference
Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox
Lincoln assassinated
Thirtieth Amendment ratified
Johnson issues Reconstruction proclamation
Congress refuses to seat Southern congressmen
Freedman’s Bureau establishes
Southern states pass Black Codes
1866 Permanent transatlantic cable established
Congress passes Civil Rights Bill over Johnson’s veto
Congress passes Fourteenth Amendment
Johnson-backed candidates lose congressional election
Ex parte Milligan case
Ku Klux Klan founded
National Labor Union organized
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) created