Dates You Must Know

1492

Columbus "discovered" the Americas

1607

Jamestown, 1st British Colony, founded in what would becme the US

1619

1st enslaved Africans arrived in what would become US. House of Burgesses created in Virginia

1763

7 Years War ended and the Proclamation Line established

1776

13 Colonies declared independence from Britain and established the US

1783

Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War

1787

Consitiutional Convention convened in Philadelphia

1789

Consititution ratified & George Washington was unanimously elected 1st POTUS

1800

Thomas Jefferson was elected illustrating that the US would have peaceful transitions of power

1803

Lousiana Territory was purchased by Thomas Jeffereson from France

1815

Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812

1820

Missouri Compromise passed in attempt to preserve balance of power in Congress between free and slave states

1823

Monroe Doctrine proclaimed US the protector of the Americas

1828

Andrew Jackson ( member of the new Democratic Party) was elected POTUS, solidifying the 2 party system in the US

1846

Mexican-American War began after the annexation of Texas

1848

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War & US gained Mexican Cession. 1st Women's Rights Conference held in Seneca Falls, NY

1854

Kansas-Nebraska Act became law, repealing Missouri Compromise

1861

Civil War began

1863

Emancipation Proclamation was signed by Abraham Lincoln

1865

Civil War ended

1877

Reconstruction ended due to Compromise of 1877

1890

Sherman and Antitrust Act was passed

1896

Segregation ruled consitituional by the SCOTUS ruling in Plessy V. Ferguson

1898

Spanish-American War began in April and ended in August with the Treaty of Paris

1911

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire killed 146 workers, mostly women and girls

1914

WWI began

1917

US joined WWI

1918

The influenza pandemic killed 50 million. An armistice ended the fighting in WWI

1919

Treaty of Versailles officially ended WW1 and ensured there would be a WWII

1929

Stock market crashed signaling the beginning of the Great Depression

1933

The worst year of the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt took office and started New Deal. Hitler became Chancellor in Germany

1939

WWII began

1941

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor caused the US to enter WWII

1945

WWII ended with US dropping 2 atomic bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki

1949

Soviet Union (USSR) gained atomic weapons. NATO established

1954

Segregated schools ruled unconstitutional by the SCOTUS ruling in Brown v. Board of Education

1964

The Civil RIghts Act passeed, ending segregation

1968

Bad year. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy assassinations, riots at the Democratic National Commitee (DNE), and the Tet Offensive

1974

Nixon resigned from office. Stader arrived on earth

1981

Reagan was inaugurated as president, illustrating success of Conservative Movement

1991

US invaded Iraq in Operation Desert Storm

2001

NYC and DC were attacked by Al Qaeda on Sep. 11th