United States history timeline study guide and summary

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United States history timeline study guide and summary

The Early Republic (1789-1802)

1789 – George Washington Elected President
Judiciary Act of 1789 – Established the Supreme Court
French Revolution – Federalists oppose it, Anti-Federalists support (U.S. Neutral)
1790 – Rhode Island becomes 9th state to officially ratify the Constitution
1791 – Alexander Hamilton creates Bank of the United States (opposed by Jefferson)
– All states unanimously ratify the Bill of Rights
1793 – Proclamation of American Neutrality (by George Washington) – keeps America neutral after France declares war on Britain, Spain, and Holland (example of U.S. foreign policy)
- Fugitive Slave Act – illegal to help slaves escape
- Eli Whitney invents Cotton Gin - **Creates massive increase of slaves in the South
1794 – Whiskey Rebellion – 1st time U.S. Government uses Federal troops to subdue domestic issues (Farmers did not like new excise taxes)
1795 – Treaty of Greenville – U.S. cheaply pays 12 Native American tribes for Ohio territory
- Pinckney Treaty – Spain gives U.S. navigation rights on Mississippi River, New Orleans
1796 – John Adams (Federalist) defeats Thomas Jefferson (Republican) in first contested Presidential Election; Jefferson becomes Vice President
1797 - XYZ Affair – French try to extort U.S. for diplomatic meetings – public wants war
1798 – Alien & Sedition Acts – expands Gov’t power, limit dissent and weakening of Gov’t, ruled unconstitutional

Kentucky & Virginia Resolutions – increase state rights over Federal rights, written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison

1799 – 2nd Great Awakening – major religious reform movement; helps increase abolition
1800 – Thomas Jefferson defeats John Adams (controversy); Aaron Burr is VP

Alexander Hamilton suggests U.S. capital moves to Washington, D.C. (move helps gain Southern support for Hamilton’s economics)

1801 – John Marshall becomes first chief justice of the Supreme Court

Judiciary Act/Midnight Judges – Adams attempt to secure the Federalist party days before he is to leave office by appointing Federalists into office

Westward Expansion and Strained Neutrality (1803-1811)

1803- Marbury vs. Madison establishes Judicial Review
1803 – Louisana Purchase – not known to Jefferson if it was constitutional to annex land, Congress approves purchase from France, doubles the size of U.S.

Lewis and Clark Expedition sets to survey land of Louisana Purchase (Sacagawea guided)
Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton in a duel

1807 – Embargo Act – placed by Jefferson on Britain/France; fails – hurts U.S. economy
1808 – James Madison elected President
1809 – Tecumseh establishes union of Native Americans to resist westward movement of U.S.
1811 – William Henry Harrison leads attack on Tecumseh at Battle of Tippecanoe (wins)

War of 1812 (1812-1815)

Congress declares war on Britain (issues – impressments, blockades, economy, Native Americans)
Native Americans begin attacking U.S. settlers (weapons provided by Britain)
Treat of Ghent ends War of 1812
Harford Convention – New England’s states threaten secession; Federalist Party is no more
‘Era of Good Feelings’ (one party politics) begins in the U.S. – U.S independence finally confirmed – Good relations with Britain begins (i.e. sharing of Oregon Territory)

Nationalism, Sectionalism, and Economic Expansion (1816-1827)

Westward Expansion across North America – transportation revolution
Sectional Tension between North and South increases over Slavery
Major economic differences develop b/n North and South related to slavery
1816 – Underground Railroad provides Northern escape for slaves
1816 – James Monroe elected 5th President (reelected in 1820)
1817 – Erie Canal – construction begins (connects Great Lakes to Atlantic Ocean)
1819 – McCulloch vs. Maryland – ruling confirms Congresses’ right to found the 2nd Bank of the United States
1819 – Spain cedes Florida to the U.S.
* 1820 – Missouri Compromise – sets dividing line between free and slaves states at latitude 36’30’

Above line (free), Below line (slave)

1821 – Stephen F. Austin establishes first U.S. Settlement in Texas
1823 – Monroe Doctrine – claims western hemisphere closed to European intervention (first major U.S. foreign diplomacy)
1824 – Gibbons vs. Ogden – establishes federal control of interstate commerce
1826 – Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on same day (50th anniversary of Dec. of Independence)

Age of Jackson (1828-1849)

1828 - Andrew Jackson elected 7th President
Two party system fully emerges in U.S. politics for first time
Indian Removal Act – authorizes forcible westward relocation of Native Americans
Cyrus McCormick – invents mechanical reaper – transforms agriculture
Ralph Waldo Emerson – transcendentalism (individualism) – Thoreau – Civil Disobedience
Spoils System – giving government posistions to friends or colleagues (Andrew Jackson)
Horace Mann – reforms in education
Trail of Tears – Cherokee tribes sent on forced removal to Oklahoma, 4,000 die on way
1841 – First Jim Crow Laws established (legal segregation)
1845 – Manifest Destiny – U.S. destiny and duty to expand and conquer the west
1847 – William Lloyd Garrison – wants immediate emancipation (he was white)

Frederick Douglass – creates North Star abolitionist newspaper, writes Narratives of…

1848 – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – ends Mexican War, Mexico cedes Texas and all land north of the Rio Grande to U.S. (creates modern border of the U.S. with Gadsden Purchase)

Antebellum Period (pre-civil war) (1850-1859)

Compromise of 1850 – North gets California as free states, ban of sale of slaves in D.C.

South gets stricter enforcement of Fugitive Slave Act, $10 mil to Texas

1852- Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Kansas-Nebraska Act – repeals Missouri Compromise, popular sovereignty to determine slave/free states
1856 – “Bleeding Kansas” – John Brown leads antislavery massacre at Pottawatomie Creek, fight over slavery in Kansas
1857 – Dred Scott vs. Sanford – ruling effectively nullifies Missouri Compromise, declares that slaves are property – cannot sue.
1858 – Lincoln-Douglas Debates – Stephen Douglas wins Illinois Senate seat. Lincoln a household name
1859 – John Brown leads attack on arsenal at Harper’s Ferry; later captured and hanged

The Civil War (1860-1865)

1860 – Abraham Lincoln elected 16th President; South Carolina secedes the Union = Civil War
1861 – Confederate States formed, Jefferson Davis – 1st and only President
1861 – Fort Sumter (S.C.) – confederates attack Union – war starts
1862 – Homestead Act – 160 acres to each farmer willing to cultivate land in West
1862 – Battle of Antietam – bloodiest battle of the Civil War
1862 – Battle of Gettysburg – turning point of Civil War; South never recovers
1863 – Emancipation Proclamation – frees slaves in only Confederate states; foreign diplomacy!
1864 – William Sherman – ‘March to Sea’ – Atlanta to Savannah – destroys everything!
1865 - 13th Amendment – abolishes slavery
1865 – Gen. Robert E. Lee (confederacy) surrenders at Appomattox Court House to Union General Ulysses Grant
1865 – Abraham Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth; Andrew Johnson now President

Reconstruction (1865-1877)

1865 – South establishes Black Codes – limits rights of freed blacks
1866 – Civil Rights Act of 1866 – grants citizenship to all people born in U.S. (14th Amendment)
1867 – Tenure of Office Act – used to impeach Andrew Johnson (said he had violated it)
1867 – U.S. purchase Alaska from Russia (becomes 49th state in 1959)
1869 – Transcontinental Railroad – connects the coasts of the United States; greatest transportation achievement
1870 – 15th Amendment – grants protection of voting rights to black males
1870 – Hiram Revels – first black senator – Mississippi
1871 – William “Boss” Tweed – greatest example of a political machine (NYC)
1873 – Slaughter House Cases – authority of state governments over individuals
1875 – Whiskey Ring Scandal – corruption in Grants administration & Republican party
1876 – Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse lead Sioux to crushing victory of General George Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn
1876 – Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

The Gilded Age (1878-1900)

1879 - Susan B. Anthony – gets women’s suffrage vote to Congress – leads to 19th Amendment
1879 – Thomas Edison creates the electric light
1881 – President James Garfield assassinated
1881 – Booker T. Washington – gradual approach to equal rights – prove yourself

W.E.B Dubois – changes in civil rights now; founds the NAACP

1882 – Chinese Exclusion Act – bans Chinese immigration for 10 years
1882 – John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil Trust; Andrew Carnegie – Steel
1887 – Dawes Severalty Act – denies tribal rights, advances forced assimilation, opens lands to whites
1890 – Wounded Knee – Federal forces massacre 200 Sioux Indians
1890 – Sherman Antitrust Act – outlaws monopolies, price-fixing, other trade restraints
1891 – Populist Party – formed specifically to give farmers a voice in government
1895 – Yellow Journalism - journalism that features unethical or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or individual journalists.
1896 - **Plessy vs. Ferguson – ‘Separate but Equal’ is constitutional (overturned by Brown vs. Board of Education)
1898 – Grandfather Clause – voting rights of blacks challenged with literacy tests and poll taxes
1898 - Spanish-American War – Teddy Roosevelt leads Rough Riders, U.S. crushes Spain’s Navy
1898 – Treat of Paris – ends the Spanish-American War
1899 – Open Door Policy – U.S. attempt to gain foothold in Chinese markets

Progressive Era – (1901-1914)

1901 – President McKinley assassinated, Teddy Roosevelt now 26th President
1904 – Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine – increases U.S. presence in Latin America
1906 – Muckraker – writers who expose big business corruption
1906 – Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection – set food quality standards
1906 – Panama Canal – connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (opens in 1914)
1908 – Henry Ford introduces the Model T car, assembly lines introduced
1913 – 16th Amendment – establishment of income tax, 17th Amend.– direct election of senators
1914 – World War I begins in Europe

U.S. Involvement in World War I (1915-1919)

Woodrow Wilson wins reelection on campaign of keeping U.S. neutral during war
WWI – bloodiest war in world history to date, aka “The Great War”, “The War to End All Wars”
1915 – German U-Boat sinks British passenger liner Lusitania, Americans killed on board
1917 – Germany continues unrestricted submarine warfare – gets warning from U.S.
1917 – Zimmerman Telegram – intercepted by British, asks for Germany/Mexico alliance against U.S.; US. Enters WWI
1917 – Selective Service Act – establishes the draft
1918 – Fourteen Points – by Woodrow Wilson, 14th pt most important – calls for League of Nations
1919 – Treaty of Versailles – ends WWI; calls for heavy reparations on Germany, disarmament, and creation of League of Nations; U.S. Senate rejects it

The Roaring Twenties (1920-1929)

1919 - 18th Amendment – outlaws purchase, sale, and transport of alcohol
1920 – 19th Amendment – women’s suffrage (right to vote)
1924 – Teapot Dome Scandal – exposes massive corruption in Harding Administration
1924 – Dawes Plan – ease war reparations on Germany
1925 – Scopes Monkey Trial – popularizes debate over teaching evolution in schools – outlawed
1927 – Charles Lindbergh – completes world’s first solo flight across Atlantic – seen as a hero
1927 – Sacco and Vanzetti – executed for murder; controversial because the were anarchists, politically motivated and unjustified
1929 – Stock Market Crash – ‘Black Tuesday’ – launches Great Depression

Great Depression and New Deal (1930-1939)

1932 – Bonus Army (WWI vets) march on Washington demanding compensation – forced out
1932- Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President
1933- U.S. unemployment rate reaches 25%, FDR claims Bank Holiday to fix banks
1933- Fireside Chats – FDR address public on radio – continues to 1944 – gives public hope
1933 – 1st 100 Days – creation of countless jobs, most productive of any president’s 1st 100 days
1933- Unemployment Relief Act and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to employ public works

AAA – controls crop production, compensates farmers for cooperation
TVA – established to construct dams in Tennessee River to generate electricity
NIRA – sets nationwide business practices
NRA – manage industry recovery
PWA – employ jobless

20th Amendment – shifts presidential inaugurations from March to January
21st Amendment – repeals 18th amendment (prohibition)
1934 – Huey Long – criticizes FDR, “Share Our Wealth” proposes large tax burden on wealthy
1935 – Wagner Act – supports union rights, protects collective bargaining
1935- Social Security Act – establishes funds for unemployed and elderly

World War II – (1940-1945)

*Germany (led by Adolf Hitler) invades Poland; WWII begins
*U.S. attempts isolationism from war in Europe
*December 7, 1941 – Japan bombs Pearl Harbor – U.S. enters the War
*Axis Powers – Germany, Italy, Japan; Allied Powers – Britain, France, China, U.S., USSR
*Battle of Stalingrad – seen as wars turning point for allied victory
1940 – FDR elected for unprecedented 3rd Term
1940 – Lend-Lease Act – provides U.S. loan aid to Britain, USSR & allied powers
1940 – Atlantic Charter – agreement b/n U.S President FDR and Britain Prime Minister Churchill
1941- Propaganda – motivate U.S. citizens to support war efforts
1942- Battle of Midway – U.S. defeats Japan, seen as turning point in the war in the Pacific
1942- Interment of Japanese Americans – imprisonment of Japanese in California
1942 – Manhattan Project – creation of the Atomic Bomb
1944 – Allies invade Normandy, France on D-DAY, June 6, 1944 (largest land/sea invasion)
1944- Battle of the Bulge – begins to break down Axis position on western front
1945 – Allies liberate Nazi concentration camps in Eastern Europe
1945- FDR dies, Harry Truman becomes President; Adolf Hitler commits suicide
1945 – Germany surrenders on V-E-DAY (victory in Europe day)
1945 – U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki (Aug 9) – Japan surrenders
1945 – United Nations created with 51 founding nations
1945 – Nuremberg Trials – prosecute Nazi war criminals

Baby Boom, Economic Prosperity, and the Cold War (1946-1960)

* Soviet Union emerges as only major U.S. rival, creating intense, prolonged standoff between superpowers, known as the Cold War
1946 – “Iron Curtain” – describes division of Communist Eastern Europe from Western Europe
1947 – Truman Doctrine – U.S. intent to fight Communism by helping free nations resist it.
1947 – Marshal Plan – postwar economic recovery to help Western Europe; largest relief aid given by the U.S. in U.S. history
1948 – Berlin Blockade – USSR blocks all aid into West Berlin; Berlin Airlift – U.S. drops food and supplies by air to West Berlin
1948 – Harry Truman orders desegregation of military
1949 – NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) created – alliance system of 26 countries in North America and Europe
1950 – Korean war begins; U.S. aids South Korea against North Korea; Peace Treaty in 1953
1950 – Joseph McCarthy – begins rabid anti-communist campaign; hurt when he accuses military of having communists; alcoholic
1950 – Communist Fear in U.S. – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for espionage; Alger Hiss convicted of perjury – 1991 Soviet documents confirm their guilt!
1954 - * Brown vs. Board of Education – overturns Plessy vs. Ferguson; says separate but equal is unconstitutional
1954 – “Containment”- (Truman) must stop spread of all communism; “Domino Theory” (Eisenhower) – fears that Indochina must not go communist or it will spread all over the world
1954- Geneva Peace Accords – temporally divides Vietnam at 17th parallel
1955 – Rosa Parks arrested for not giving up seat on bus to whites; sparks Montgomery Bus Boycott
1955 – Jonas Salk – creates polio vaccine
1957 – USSR launches first satellite in space – Sputnik
1960 – 1st televised Presidential debate – JFK vs. Nixon (JFK wins); JFK president 1960
1960 – JFK launches New Frontier platform to help America
1960 – Lunch Counter “Sit-Ins” spark waves of civil rights protest; SCLC created by MLK, Jr.

Civil Rights, Nixon, and Vietnam (1961-1973)

1961 – Bay of Pigs – failed invasion of Cuba by U.S. (CIA) trained military
1961 – Berlin Wall – divides East and West Berlin (East was communist)
1962- Cuban Missile Crisis – standoff b/n U.S. and USSR after Soviets placed missiles in Cuba pointed at the United States; no fighting incurs
1963 – “I have a dream” speech given by MLK – speech for civil rights
1963 – Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates JFK in Dallas, TX
1963 – Lyndon Johnson President – launches “Great Society” program to end poverty and racism
1964 – Civil Rights Act of 1964 – bans discrimination in education, employment, & public places
1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Resolution – broadens LBJ’s military powers in Vietnam – no declare war
1965 – Voting Rights Act of 1965 – bans literacy tests for voting
1965 – Malcom X (Nation of Islam) – blamed whites for African American problems; assassinated
1966 – Miranda vs. Arizona- police must read suspects their rights
1967 – Thurgood Marshall – first black justice of the Supreme Court
1968 – Tet Offensive launched by North Vietnamese Army – turning point of U.S. in Vietnam
1968 – James Earl Ray assassinated MLK, Jr. – hurts Civil Rights movement
1968 – Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Robert Kennedy, JFK’s brother; Richard Nixon voted President
1969 – Apollo 11 lands on the moon, Neil Armstrong first to walk on moon
1969 – My Lai Massacre – U.S. soldiers kill 200 innocent men, women, and children
1971 – Pentagon Papers – 7,000 page document outlining U.S. government plan in Vietnam; shows gov’t was not telling truth to public.
1972 – Watergate Scandal – Nixon authorizes break-in and wiretapping of Democratic National Committee headquarters in Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
1973 – Roe vs. Wade – legalizes abortion (up to 3 months)
1973 – U.S. Energy Crisis – fuel shortage in U.S. due to OPEC raising prices
1973 – U.S. withdraws from Vietnam; North Vietnam overtakes South after departure

1974 – Present

Richard Nixon resigns to avoid impeachment; Gerald Ford President – pardons Nixon; Ford is only President never voted into office.
1976 – Jimmy Carter elected President
1978 – Camp David Accords – Carter negotiates peace between Egypt and Israel
1979 – Three Mile Island – nuclear power accident causes concern of nuclear safety
1980 – Ronald Reagan elected 40th President
1981 – Iran releases U.S. embassy hostages released after 444 days in captivity.
1983 – Strategic Defense Initiative (a.k.a. STAR WARS) – space based missile defense proposed
1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger explodes on takeoff, crew killed; space program never the same
1986 – U.S. bombs Libya for supporting Palestinians
1988 – Osama Bin Laden founds Islamist group Al Qaeda
1989 – Chinese government crushes pro-democracy revolt in Tiananmen Square
1989 – Berlin Wall falls (Reagan feels its U.S.’s greatest accomplishment of the era)
1990 – Saddam Hussein orders invasion of Kuwait; starts Operation Desert Storm
1992 – Bill Clinton President; appoints Janet Reno first female attorney general

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