| 1565 |
Spain founded the first
permanent European settlement in what is now the United States at Saint
Augustine, Florida. However, Native Americans had lived on the continent
for thousands of years. |
| 1607 |
The first permanent
British settlement in America was established at Jamestown, Virginia. |
| 1763 |
Great Britain gained
control of eastern North America at the end of the Seven Years' War,
known in America as the French and Indian War. |
| 1770s |
Boston became a center of
growing American discontent with British rule, and the American
Revolution began nearby in 1775. |
| 1776 |
The Continental Congress
adopted the Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia. |
| 1781 |
American forces
decisively defeated the British at the Siege of Yorktown. Two years
later, in the Treaty of Paris, Great Britain recognized the independence
of the former colonies as the United States of America. |
| 1787 |
The Constitutional
Congress met in Philadelphia and wrote the Constitution of the United
States. All 13 states ratified the Constitution by 1790. |
| 1803 |
The area of the United
States nearly doubled in size after President Thomas Jefferson acquired
the territory of Louisiana from France in a transaction known as the
Louisiana Purchase. |
| 1812-1815 |
The War of 1812 between
Britain and the United States helped end British interference in
American affairs. |
| 1823 |
In the Monroe Doctrine,
President James Monroe warned Europeans against interfering in the
affairs of any country in the Western Hemisphere. |
| 1848 |
The United States gained
large amounts of territory after winning the Mexican War. The new land,
coupled with the acquisition of the Oregon country in 1846, extended the
western border of the United States to the Pacific Ocean. |
| 1861 |
Several Southern slave
states seceded in January and formed the Confederate States of America.
The American Civil War broke out in April. |
| 1865 |
The Confederacy
surrendered, ending the Civil War. Slavery was abolished throughout the
United States. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. |
| 1867 |
The United States
purchased Alaska from Russia. |
| 1868 |
Andrew Johnson became the
first U.S. President to be impeached. The Senate acquitted him and did
not remove him from office. |
| 1870-1890 |
The last Native American
tribes were defeated by government forces and pushed onto reservations. |
| 1886 |
The American Federation
of Labor was formed to fight for workers in an increasingly
industrialized country. |
| 1898 |
The United States won the
Spanish-American War and gained territories in the Caribbean and the
Pacific. Hawaii was annexed the same year. |
| 1914 |
The United States
completed construction of the Panama Canal, providing a link between the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans. |
| 1917-1918 |
The United States fought
in World War I, confirming its status as a world power. |
| 1920 |
Women gained the right to
vote. The manufacture and sale of alcohol was banned, ushering in the
era of Prohibition. |
| 1929 |
Wild speculation led to a
stock market crash, triggering the Great Depression. |
| 1933 |
Franklin Roosevelt became
president and introduced a series of economic and social reforms known
as the New Deal. Prohibition was repealed. |
| 1941 |
Japan attacked U.S.
forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, pulling the United States into World War
II. |
| 1945 |
The United Nations was
established in New York. |
| 1947 |
The Truman Doctrine was
established to help nations resist Soviet influence. Anti-Communist
tensions escalated as the Cold War began. |
| 1950-1953 |
U.S. troops fought in the
Korean War. |
| 1962 |
The United States and the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics narrowly avoided war during the
Cuban Missile Crisis. |
| 1963-1964 |
Important civil rights
reforms were passed by Congress. |
| 1965-1973 |
U.S. forces fought in the
Vietnam War, which sparked widespread protests in the United States. |
| 1969 |
U.S. astronauts became
the first people to land on the moon. |
| 1974 |
In the wake of the
Watergate scandal, Richard M. Nixon became the first U.S. president to
resign from office. |
| 1980s |
The U.S. economy emerged
from a recession but was faced with increasing federal and foreign trade
deficits. |
| 1990-1991 |
U.S. forces led a
multinational coalition against Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. |
| 1994 |
The Republican Party
swept the November elections and won control of both houses of Congress
for the first time since 1954. |
| 1995 |
Terrorists detonated a
bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City,
causing 168 deaths and largely destroying the building. |
| 1999 |
Bill Clinton became the
second U.S. President to be impeached. |
General Knowledge :: HISTORICAL EVENTS BY COUNTRY :: UNITED STATES