Timeline

Event · c. 21,000 BCE (disputed) · date disputed

The Peopling of the Americas

How and when the first people arrived — a question science is still answering

Institution · c. 1450s (disputed)–present · date disputed

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy

The League of the Iroquois — a union of nations governed by the Great Law of Peace

Event · Oct 12, 1492 – 1504

The Voyages of Columbus

Spanish-sponsored voyages that began sustained contact between Europe and the Americas

Event · 1584–1590

The Roanoke Colony

England’s “Lost Colony,” 1587

Event · May 13, 1607

The Founding of Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, 1607

Event · Aug 1619

The First Africans in Virginia

1619: Enslaved Angolans arrive at Point Comfort

Event · Aug 10 – Sep 21, 1680

The Pueblo Revolt

Pueblo nations unite to drive Spanish colonizers out of New Mexico, 1680

Event · Feb 1692 – 1693

The Salem Witch Trials

The 1692 witch hunt in Puritan Massachusetts that sent twenty people to their deaths

Movement · 1730s – 1770s

The First Great Awakening

A wave of evangelical revivals across the colonies, 1730s–1770s

War · 1754 – Feb 10, 1763

The French and Indian War

The North American front of the Seven Years’ War, 1754–1763

Event · Mar 1765 – Mar 1766

The Stamp Act Crisis

The first great colonial protest against taxation by Parliament

Event · Dec 16, 1773

The Boston Tea Party

Colonists destroy East India Company tea in Boston Harbor

Institution · Sep 5, 1774 – Mar 1, 1781

The Continental Congress

The colonies’ revolutionary assembly, and the first national government

War · Apr 19, 1775 – Sep 3, 1783

The American Revolution

The War of Independence, 1775–1783

Document · Nov 15, 1777 – Mar 1, 1781

Articles of Confederation

The first constitution of the United States, 1781–1789

Event · Aug 1786 – Feb 1787

Shays’ Rebellion

An armed uprising of indebted farmers that shook the new nation

Institution · c. 1790s–present

Political Parties

From Federalists and Republicans to the modern two-party system

Document · Dec 15, 1791

The Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution

Event · Oct 1800 – Feb 17, 1801

The Election of 1800

The first transfer of power between rival parties

Event · May 14, 1804 – Sep 23, 1806

The Lewis and Clark Expedition

The Corps of Discovery crosses the continent, 1804–1806

War · Jun 18, 1812 – Feb 18, 1815

The War of 1812

The United States fights Britain again, 1812–1815

Event · 1817–1825

The Erie Canal

The 363-mile “artificial river” that linked the Great Lakes to New York City in 1825

Document · Dec 2, 1823

The Monroe Doctrine

The United States warns Europe away from the Americas, 1823

Movement · 1775–1865

Abolitionism

The movement to end slavery in the United States

Event · May 28, 1830 – 1850

Indian Removal

The forced expulsion of Native nations from the East, 1830–1850

Court Case · 1832

Worcester v. Georgia

The Supreme Court recognizes Cherokee sovereignty — and the president refuses to enforce it

Event · Feb 23 – Mar 6, 1836

The Alamo and the Texas Revolution

The thirteen-day siege of 1836 and the war that made Texas an independent republic

Event · May 1838 – Mar 1839

The Trail of Tears

The forced removal of the Cherokee Nation, 1838–1839

War · May 13, 1846 – Feb 2, 1848

The Mexican-American War

The United States conquers half of Mexico, 1846–1848

Event · Jan 1850 – Sep 1850

The Compromise of 1850

Congress tries to settle the slavery question after the Mexican War

Document · May 30, 1854

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

The law that repealed the Missouri Compromise and set Kansas bleeding, 1854

Court Case · 1857

Dred Scott v. Sandford

The Supreme Court denies Black citizenship and opens the territories to slavery

War · Apr 12, 1861 – Apr 9, 1865

The Civil War

The war over union and slavery, 1861–1865

Document · Jul 9, 1868

The Fourteenth Amendment

Citizenship, due process, and equal protection, 1868

Document · Feb 3, 1870

The Fifteenth Amendment

Voting rights regardless of race, 1870

Event · Nov 7, 1876 – Mar 4, 1877

The Disputed Election of 1876 and the End of Reconstruction

The “Compromise of 1877”

Event · Jun 25–26, 1876

The Battle of the Little Bighorn

Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors destroy Custer’s command, June 1876

Movement · 1877–1935

The Labor Movement

Workers organize for wages, hours, and a voice on the job

Document · May 6, 1882

The Chinese Exclusion Act

The first federal law to bar immigrants by nationality, 1882

Event · May 4, 1886

The Haymarket Affair

A bomb at a Chicago labor rally, May 4, 1886

Document · Feb 8, 1887

The Dawes Act

Breaking up tribal lands through allotment, 1887

Event · Jan 17, 1893 – Jul 7, 1898

The Overthrow and Annexation of Hawaiʻi

How American sugar planters toppled Queen Liliʻuokalani and the United States took the islands in 1898

Event · May 11, 1894 – Jul 1894

The Pullman Strike

A national railroad boycott crushed by federal troops, 1894

Court Case · 1896

Plessy v. Ferguson

The Supreme Court upholds “separate but equal,” 1896

War · Apr 25 – Dec 10, 1898

The Spanish-American War

A short war that made the United States an overseas empire, 1898

Movement · Jul 19, 1848 – Aug 18, 1920

The Woman Suffrage Movement

Seventy-two years of struggle for women’s right to vote, 1848–1920

Movement · c. 1890s – c. 1920

Progressivism

Reformers confront the problems of industrial America, c. 1890s–1920

Event · 1898–1952

Puerto Rico Under the United States

From Spanish colony to U.S. territory and commonwealth, 1898–1952

Event · Dec 17, 1903

The Wright Brothers’ First Flight

Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, December 17, 1903: the first powered, controlled airplane flights

Movement · c. 1910s – c. 1970s

The Great Migration

Millions of Black Southerners move North and West, 1910s–1970

Event · Mar 25, 1911

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

A disaster that changed American workplace safety, March 25, 1911

War · Apr 6, 1917 – Nov 11, 1918

World War I

The United States enters the Great War, 1917–1918

Court Case · 1919

Schenck v. United States

Free speech in wartime and the “clear and present danger” test, 1919

Event · May 31 – Jun 1, 1921

Tulsa Race Massacre

The destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, 1921

Movement · 1922–1935

The Harlem Renaissance

A flowering of Black literature, art, and music in 1920s New York

Document · 1924

Immigration Act of 1924

The Johnson-Reed Act and the national origins quota system

Event · c. 1930–1940

The Dust Bowl

Drought, dust storms, and migration on the southern Plains in the 1930s

Event · Feb 1932 – May 23, 1934

Bonnie and Clyde

Depression-era outlaws whose short, violent crime spree became an American legend

Event · Mar 4, 1933 – 1938

The New Deal

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s programs of relief, recovery, and reform, 1933–1939

Document · Aug 14, 1935

Social Security Act

The 1935 law that created old-age pensions and unemployment insurance

War · Dec 7, 1941 – Sep 2, 1945

World War II

The United States in the global war, 1941–1945

Event · Dec 7, 1941

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Japan’s surprise attack that brought the United States into World War II

War · 1947 – Dec 25, 1991

The Cold War

The global rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, 1947–1991

Event · 1948–1952

The Marshall Plan

The European Recovery Program, 1948–1952

Event · Oct 4, 1957 – Jul 20, 1969

The Space Race

From Sputnik to the moon: the Cold War contest for supremacy in space, 1957–1969

Movement · c. 1950s–present

LGBTQ+ Rights Movement

From homophile organizing to gay liberation and marriage equality

Event · Dec 5, 1955 – Dec 20, 1956

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The thirteen-month protest that launched the modern civil rights movement

Event · Sep 4–25, 1957

The Little Rock Nine

The desegregation of Central High School, 1957

Event · Aug 28, 1963

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

The 1963 march where King delivered “I Have a Dream”

Court Case · 1966

Miranda v. Arizona

The ruling that requires police to warn suspects of their rights

Court Case · 1967

Loving v. Virginia

The Supreme Court strikes down bans on interracial marriage

Event · Jun 17, 1972 – Aug 9, 1974

The Watergate Scandal

The abuses of power that forced President Nixon to resign, 1972–1974

Court Case · 1973

Roe v. Wade

The 1973 decision recognizing a constitutional right to abortion — overruled in 2022

Court Case · 1974

United States v. Nixon

The Supreme Court orders the president to release the Watergate tapes

Event · 1989 – Dec 25, 1991

The End of the Cold War

The fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union, 1989–1991

War · Aug 2, 1990 – Feb 28, 1991

Persian Gulf War

The U.S.-led coalition that expelled Iraq from Kuwait, 1990–1991

War · Mar 20, 2003 – Dec 18, 2011

Iraq War

The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, 2003–2011

Event · Dec 2007 – Jun 2009

The Great Recession

The financial crisis and deep recession of 2007–2009

Court Case · 2015

Obergefell v. Hodges

The Supreme Court recognizes same-sex couples’ right to marry

Event · Jan 20, 2020

COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic in the United States, 2020–2023