[1492.08.03] Columbus and a crew of 90 depart from Palos in Spain in the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.

[1492.10.12] Columbus's expedition lands in the Caribbean. Between October and December, the expedition explores the Bahamas, Cuba, and the northern coast of Hispaniola. Columbus made three later voyages to the New World: from 1493-1496, 1498-1500, and 1502-1504.

[1494.06.07] The Treaty of Tordesillas grants lands west of the line of demarcation (370 leagues west of the cape Verde Islands) to Spain and those east of the line to Portugal.

[1497.06.24] John Cabot, who was probably born in Genoa, Italy, claims Newfoundland in behalf of England.

[1507] Martin Waldseemuller's Cosmographiae Introductio is the first to call the New World America.

[1513.04.02] Juan Ponce de Leon claims Florida for Spain.

[1519.03] Hernando Cortes leads an expedition to Mexico.

[1519.09.20] Fernando Magellan sets sail on the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe.

[1526] Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon establishes the first European settlement in the present-day United States at San Migel de Guadalupe on the South Carolina coast.

[1556.09.08] The Spanish establish the first permanent European colony in what is now the United States at St. Augustine, Florida.

[1565] John Hawkins introduces smoking of tobacco into England.

[1584] Richard Hakluyt's Discourse Concerning Western Planting argues that New World settlement would benefit England's economy by providing raw materials and markets and putting idle workers to work.

[1587] The "Lost Colony." For the second time, English settlers establish a colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. When a group of colonists returns from England with supplies in 1590, it finds no trace of the settlers

[1598] Juan de Onate begins Spanish settlement of what is now New Mexico.

[1607.05.13] The first permanent English colony is founded in Jamestown, Virginia.

[1619.06.30] Virginia's House of Burgesses convenes

[1619.08] A Dutch ship carries 20 blacks to Virginia. We now know that these were not the first blacks to arrive in Virginia.

[1620.05.21] The Mayflower Compact, signed by 41 adult males in Provincetown Harbor, Mass., represents the first agreement on self-government in English North America.

[1620.12.26] The Pilgrim Separatists land at Plymouth, Mass.

[1621.12.25] Massachusetts Governor William Bradford forbids game-playing on Christmas day.

[1622.03.22] Indian attacks kill one-third of the English settlers in Virginia.

[1624] John Smith publishes his General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, which describes his rescue by Pocahontas.

[1624.05] The Dutch establish the colony of New Netherland.

[1624.05.01] The Maypole at Mare Mount. In what is now Quincy, Mass., Thomas Morton and others set up a May Pole, engaged in drinking and dancing with Indian women, and celebrated "the feasts of the Roman Goddes Glora, or the beastly practises of the Madd Bacchinalian

[1632] Charles I grants Lord Baltimore territory north of the Potomac River, which will become Maryland. Because the royal charter did not restrict settlement to Protestants, Catholics could settle in the colony.

[1634] Massachusetts' sumptuary law forebodes the purchase of woolen, linen or silk clothes with silver, gold, silk, or lace on them.

[1636.06] After being expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony, Roger Williams founds Rhode Island, which becomes the first English colony to grant complete religious tolerance.

[1637.11.07] Massachusetts banishes Anne Hutchinson for preaching that faith alone was sufficient for salvation.

[1638.03] The first Swedish colonists settle in Delaware.

[1654] The first Jews arrive in New Amsterdam, fleeing the Spanish Inquisition in Brazil.

[1660.05] Massachusetts forbids the celebration of Christmas.

[1660.12.01] Parliament adopts the First Navigation Act, which requires all goods carried to and from England to be transported on English ships and that the colonies could export cotton, ginger, sugar, tobacco, and wool exclusively to England. Other Navigation Acts w

[1661.09] Governor John Endicott orders an end to persecution of Quakers in Massachusetts, where three Quakers had been executed.

[1662] A synod of Massachusetts churches adopts the Halfway Covenant, which permits baptism of children whose parents had not become full church members.

[1664] Maryland adopts a statute denying freedom to slaves who converted to Christianity. A similar act was adopted by Virginia in 1667.

[1664.09.07] The Dutch surrender New Netherland to the English, who rename the colony New York. The Dutch temporarily regained possession in 1673 and 1674.

[1669] John Locke drafts the Fundamental Constitutions for the Carolinas, which combines a feudal social order with a stress on religious toleration.

[1675.06.24] King Philip's War begins. Relative to the size of the population, this conflict between the New England colonists and the Mohegans, Naragansetts, Nipmucks, Podunks, and Wampanoags was the deadliest in American history.

[1676.09.19] Jamestown, Virginia., is burned during Bacon's Rebellion. Declining tobacco prices, a cattle epidemic, and a belief that the colony's governor had failed to take adequate measures to protect Virginia against Indian attacks contributed to the rebellion, wh

[1681.03.04] Charles II grants William Penn a charter to what is now Pennsylvania.

[1682] Mary Rowlandson publishes an account of her captivity among Indians.

[1684.06.21] Charles II revokes Massachusetts' charter on the grounds that it had imposed religious qualifications for voting, discriminated against the Church of England, and set up an illegal mint.

[1685] James II consolidates the New England colonies into the Dominion of New England and names Sir Edmund Andros governor, who dissolved the New England colonies' assemblies.

[1689] Leisler's Insurrection. Following the overthrow of James II, Jacob Leisler, a German merchant, force New York's governor to flee. He was subsequently executed for treason.

[1689] The first French and Indian war, King William's War begins. Colonists launch attacks on Port Royal, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, and the French and their Indian allies burn Schenectady. The 1697 Treaty of Ryswick restored the pre-war status quo.

[1689.04.18] The New England colonies out Royal Governor Edmund Andros.

[1692.03] The Salem Witch Scare begin when a group of young girls claims that they have been bewitched. When Massachusetts Governor William Phips halted the trials in October, 19 people had been hanged, one man had been crushed to death, and two people had died in

[1700] Population of the British colonies: approximately 275,000. Boston, the largest city, has about 7000 inhabitants.

[1700] Samuel Sewall publishes The Selling of Joseph, one of the first expressions of antislavery thought in the American colonies.

[1702.03.04] Queen Anne's War, the second French and Indian War, begins. It lasts until 1713.

[1704.02.29] French and Indian forces attack Deerfield, killing fifty and taking a hundred residents captive, in one of the most violent episodes in Queen Anne's War.

[1704.04.24] The Boston News-Letter is the first successful newspaper in the British colonies.

[1705] Massachusetts prohibits marriages between whites and blacks.

[1711.09.22] The Tuscarora Indian War (1711-13) begins. Surviving Tuscaroras move northward and join the League of the Six Nations.

[1713.04.11] The Treaty of Utrecht ends Queen Anne's War. France cedes Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to Britain.

[1716.01] South Carolina settlers, aided by Cherokees, defeat the Yamassee Indians, and move southward into lands claimed by Spain.

[1721.05] Connecticut prohibits Sunday travel except for attendance at worship.

[1733.05.17] The Molasses Act levies heavy duties on rum and molasses imported from the French and Spanish West Indies.

[1734] The Great Awakening begins in New England, ignited by Jonathan Edwards, who sermons in Northampton, Mass., emphasize human depravity and divine omnipotence.

[1735] Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal is acquitted of seditious libel, helping to establish the principle of freedom of the press.

[1739.06.09] George II grants James Oglethorpe a charter for Georgia to serve as a buffer against Spain and as a haven for debtors. Georgia was the only one of the original 13 colonies to forbid slavery.

[1739.08] George Whitefield, a Methodist preacher, arrives from England, and preaches from New England to Georgia.

[1739.09.09] The Stono slave rebellion in South Carolina.

[1740] Population of the British colonies: approximately 889,000.

[1741] The Negro Conspiracy of 1741, an alleged plot to burn down New York City, leads authorities to burn 13 blacks alive, hang eight, and transport 71 out of the colony.

[1744] King George's War, the third French and Indian war, begins. It lasts until 1748.

[1745.06.16] New Englanders capture Fort Louisbourg, a French stronghold in Nova Scotia. The fort was returned to the French at the end of King George's War, outraging New Englanders.

[1751] Benjamin Franklin publishes his Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, perhaps the most influential essay written by an American colonist.

[1752.06] Benjamin Franklin demonstrates that lightning is form of electricity by flying a kite and a key during a thunderstorm.

[1754] 30-year-old Benjamin Banneker, an African American, constructs the first clock made entirely in the American colonies.

[1754.05.28] The fourth and most important French and Indian War (1754-1763) begins when British and French and Indian forces clash near Fort Duquesne (the site of present-day Pittsburgh) for control of the Ohio River Valley.

[1754.07.19] The Albany Congress, called to negotiate a treaty with the Iroquois in event of war with the French, approves Benjamin Franklin's "Plan of the Union" of the colonies, with a president general named by Britain and a grand council with legislative power. Th

[1757.08.10] A day after surrendering to French Gen. Montcalm at Fort William Henry in northeastern New York, many British troops die in an ambush by France's Indian allies. James Fenimore Cooper makes use of this incident in The Last of the Mohicans.

[1759.09.13] In the climactic battle of the war, Britain defeats the French on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec. Both French Gen. Montcalm and British commander James Wolfe die in the battle.

[1760] Population of the British colonies: approximately 1,610,000.

[1763.02.10] France cedes Canada to Britain under the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years' War.

[1763.05.07] Pontiac's Rebellion begins when the Ottowa Indian chief leads an attack on Detroit. After failing to receive French aid, the conflict ends in October.

[1765.03.22] Parliament passes the Stamp Act, which imposes a tax on all newspapers, legal documents, playing cards, dice, almanacs, and pamphlets, raising the issue of taxation without representation.

[1765.03.24] The Quartering Act, which requires the colonies to provide housing and food for British troops stationed in the colonies, goes into effect.

[1765.05.29] When Patrick Henry is accused of treason for denouncing the Stamp Act in the Virginia House of Burgesses, he replies: "If this be treason, make the most of it."

[1765.10.07] (-25) The Stamp Act Congress, consisting of delegates from nine colonies, meets in New York to organize united resistance to the Stamp Act. It calls on the colonies to protest the act by refusing to import goods that require purchase of a stamp.

[1766] The phrase "Sons of Liberty" refers to opponents of the Stamp Act.

[1766.03.17] Under pressure for London merchants, Parliament repeals the Stamp Act.

[1766.03.18] Parliament passes the Declaratory Act, asserting its power to pass laws affecting the colonies.

[1767.06.29] The Townsend Acts require the colonists to pay an import duty on tea, glass, oil, lead, paper, and paint.

[1768.06.09] Customs officials in Boston seize John Hancock's sloop Liberty on the (probably false) charge that it was used for smuggling.

[1768.10.01] Two regiments of British troops land in Boston.

[1769] Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan friar, establishes the first California mission.

[1769.06.07] Daniel Boone reaches Kentucky for the first time.

[1770] Population: 2,205,000

[1770.03.05] Boston Massacre. Around 9 p.m., British troops fire on a crowd of men and boys who are throwing snowballs and chunks of ice at them. Three members of the crowd--Crispus Attucks, James Caldwell, and Samuel Gray--are killed and two others--Patrick Carr and

[1770.04.12] Parliament repeals the all the Townsend duties except the one on tea.

[1772.06.10] Colonists near Providence, R.I., burn the British customs schooner Gaspee after it runs aground.

[1773] Harvard College announces that it will no longer rank students in order of social prominence.

[1773.05.10] Tea Act. To save the East Indian Company from bankruptcy, the British Parliament authorizes it to sell a huge tea surplus without payment of duty directly to the public, outraging established tea merchants, since the East India Company could undersell the

[1773.12.16] Boston Tea Party. Disguised as Mohawk Indians, a group of approximately 150 protesters boarded three tea ships in Boston harbor and emptied 342 chests of tea worth 18,000 pounds sterling into the water.

[1774.03.31] Intolerable Acts. In reprisal for the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament enacts the first of the "Intolerable Acts," closing Boston harbor to all shipping until payment for the destroyed tea was made.

[1774.05.20] Two additional "Intolerable Acts" forbid public meetings in Massachusetts unless sanctioned by the royal governor and transfer any trial of a British official accused of a capital offense to England or another colony.

[1774.06.02] The Quartering Act, another of the "Intolerable Acts," requires Massachusetts residents to house and feed British troops in private homes.

[1774.06.22] The Quebec Act extends the boundaries of Quebec to the Ohio River and guarantees the rights of Catholics and Indians in the region.

[1774.08.06] "Mother" Ann Lee, the founder of the Shakers, arrives in New York.

[1774.09.05] The First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia

[1774.09.17] The First Continental Congress approves the Suffolk Resolves, calling for organized opposition to the Intolerable Acts.

[1775.03.03] At a convention held in Richmond, Va.'s St. Johns Episcopal Church, Patrick Henry reportedly denounced arbitrary British rule with the stirring words: "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, A

[1775.04.14] The first antislavery society in the colonies is organized in Philadelphia.

[1775.04.19] At the battles of Lexington and Concord, 73 British troops are killed and 200 are wounded or missing in action. The patriot losses were 49 dead and 46 wounded or missing.

[1775.05] The Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia.

[1775.06.15] Congress selects George Washington to be commander in chief of the Continental Army.

[1775.06.17] Battle of Bunker Hill. British forces attacked Patriots on Breed's Hill, which overlooks the sea approach to Boston Harbor. Almost half of the British troops--1,054 out of 2,400--are killed or wounded. American colonel William Prescott is credited with te

[1775.06.22] The Second Continental Congress issues its first paper money.

[1776.01] Thomas Paine arrives in the United States bearing a letter of recommendation by Benjamin Franklin. His pamphlet Common Sense, published on Jan. 10, sold over 100,000 copies in three months.

[1776.06.06] At the Second Continental Congress, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduces a resolution that "these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and indpendent states."

[1776.07.02] New Jersey gives "all inhabitants" of adult age with a net worth of 50 pounds the right to vote. Women property holders have the vote until 1807, when the state limited the vote to "free, white males."

[1776.07.04] Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence. Virginia Richard Henry Lee formally moved for independence on June 6. On June 11, a five-member committee--consisting of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman

[1776.09.22] Before being executed by the British for spying, Capt. Nathan Hale says, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

[1776.12.19] To bolster the patriots' morale, Thomas Paine publishes The Crisis, which begins: "These are the times that try men's souls."

[1777.06.14] The Continental Congress authorizes a flag with 13 red and white stripes and 13 white stars on a field of blue.

[1777.07.02] Vermont becomes the first political unit in the world to abolish slavery.

[1778] According to Thomas Jefferson, "30,000 slaves escaped from Virginia in the year of 1778."

[1778.02.06] France signs a treaty with the United States.

[1778.12.29] The British invade the deep South, capturing Savannah, Ga.

[1779.06] Spain declares war on England.

[1779.09.23] When British forces on the Serapis demand that John Paul Jones surrender the sinking Bon Homme Richard, Jones replies: "Sir, I have not yet begun to fight."

[1780] U.S. population: 2,781,000.

[1780.09.21] Benedict Arnold offers to exchange West Point for 20,000 pounds and a commission as major general in the British army.

[1781] Quork Walker, a slave, successfully petitions for his freedom, basing his plea on the State constitution's declaration that "All men are born free and equal."

[1781.01.30] The Articles of Confederation are adopted.

[1781.10.19] General Cornwallis's encircled 8000-man army surrenders at Yorktown, Va.

[1782] J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur publishes his Letters from an American Farmer, which asks: "What is an American, this new man?"

[1782] Massachusetts no longer identifies adulterers with a scarlet "A" branded on the skin or sewn on a garment.

[1783] 100,000 Loyalists have fled the United States, mainly to Nova Scotia.

[1783.03.12] (-15) The Newburgh Conspiracy. Continental officers threaten to revolt against a "country that tramples on your rights." Washington convinces military leaders to resist sedition.

[1783.05.13] Revolutionary Army officers form the Society of Cincinnati.

[1783.09.03] The Paris Peace Treaty gives the United States all land east of the Mississippi River, south of Canada, and north of the Floridas.

[1785] Virginia abolishes primogeniture, the practice of conveying an estate to the eldest son.

[1787.01.25] Shays Rebellion. Massachusetts farmers, faced with high taxes, eviction, and imprisonment for debt, attack the Springfield arsenal. George Washington writes to James Madison: "If there exists not a power to check them, what security has a man for life, li

[1787.05.14] The Constitutional Convention, with George Washington presiding, convenes in Philadelphia.

[1788.06.21] By a vote of 57 to 47, New Hampshire becomes the 9th state to ratify the Constitution. North Carolina and Rhode Island rejected the document. In Virginia the vote was 89-79 for approval

[1789] The first American novel, William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy, seeks "to expose the dangerous Consequences of Seduction and to set forth the advantages of female Education."

[1789.02.04] The Electoral College selects George Washington as president. Washington wrote: "My movement to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution."

[1789.07.14] A Paris crowd of 20,000 storms the Bastille, a hated royal fortress. The crowd frees seven prisoners.

[1789.08.27] The French National Assembly, inspired in part by the Declaration of Independence, issues the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which proclaims the legal equality of all citizens and freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion.

[1790] U.S. population: 3,929,625.

[1790] Philadelphia's Walnut Street Prison introduces the Pennsylvania system of prison management

[1790.01.14] Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton recommends that the Federal Government assume the national debt and state debts incurred during the Revolution. In exchange for Southern support, northern members of Congress agree to move the U.S. capital to a

[1790.12.21] Samuel Slater opens the first cotton mill in Pawtucket, R.I.

[1791.03.03] To raise revenue, Congress imposes a tax of 20-30 cents a gallon on distilled spirits.

[1791.08.22] 100,000 slaves revolt in the French colony of St. Domingue, marking the beginning of the Haitian Revolution. Napoleon reestablished slave labor in Haiti in 1802, but lost 24,000 troops to disease and black resistance in 1803, which led to his decision to

[1791.12.15] The Bill of Rights is ratified, protecting individual liberties from the power of the central government. The first ten amendments to the Constitution guarantee such basic rights as freedom of speech, religion, and assembly, and the right to a jury trial.

[1793.04.22] President Washington issues a proclamation of neutrality, calling on Americans to avoid taking sides in the war between Britain and revolutionary France.

[1793.10.28] Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin. He had learned how to separate seeds from raw cotton from a slave known only as Sam.

[1794] Charles Willson Peale opens America's first museum of national history in Philadelphia.

[1794.07] Whiskey Rebellion. President Washington demonstrates the ability of the federal government to enforce its laws by calling out state militia to suppress a tax revolt by farmers in western Pennsylvania, who object to a tax on whiskey.

[1794.08.20] General Anthony Wayne defeats Indians at the battle of Fallen Timbers, opening the Ohio country to white settlement.

[1794.11.19] Jay's Treaty.

[1796] The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is formed in New York.

[1796.09.19] A Philadelphia newspaper publishes President Washington's Farewell Address. A plea for national unity against partisan and sectional divisions, the address also calls on the United States to avoid entangling foreign alliances.

[1797.05.31] The XYZ Affair. French agents, referred to as X, Y, and Z, demand a $10 million loan and bribes before France will negotiate a treaty with the United States. The incident gave rise to the slogan, "Millions for defense, but not one sent for tribute."

[1798] The Alien and Sedition Acts give the president the power to imprison or deport foreigners believed to be dangerous to the United States and make it a crime to attack the government with "false, scandalous, or malicious" statements or writings.

[1798] The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions declare the Alien and Sedition Acts to be unconstitutional and provide the basis for the doctrine of states' rights.

[1798.12.14] George Washington dies at his home at Mount Vernon. "Light-Horse Harry" Lee delivers the most famous eulogy: "To the memory of the man, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

[1801] Thomas Jefferson becomes the third president. Because Jefferson and his running mate Aaron Burr received the same number of electoral votes, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, where Jefferson was elected after six days of balloting

[1801.01.20] John Marshall is appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court. Under his leadership, the court established the judiciary's right to declare federal and state laws unconstitutional.

[1801.03.04] In his inaugural address, Jefferson attempts to allay Federalist fears of a Republican reign of terror by declaring "We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists." He pledges a frugal government and subsequently repealed all internal taxes.

[1801.04.30] Jefferson purchases Louisiana Territory from Napoleon, acquiring 800,000 square miles for $15 million.

[1802] The first hotel in the U.S. opens in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

[1803.02.24] The Supreme Court establishes the principle of judicial review in the case of Marbury v. Madison. For the first time, the court rules a federal law unconstitutional.

[1804.01.01] Jean Jacques Dessalines proclaims Haiti's independence.

[1804.05.14] The Lewis and Clark Expedition sets out from St. Louis. The party will explore 8000 miles along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers as far as the Pacific, returning in 1806.

[1804.07.11] Federalist party Alexander Hamilton is killed in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. Indicted by New Jersey for murder, Burr flees to South Carolina and Georgia until the indictment is quashed.

[1805.04.27] "To the Shores of Tripoli." William Eaton and a small force of Marines and Arab mercenaries march 500 miles from Egypt to capture Tripoli's port of Derna. Tripoli, which had enslaved American seamen, ended its demands for tribute.

[1806] Aaron Burr is charged with treason for plotting to set up a separate nation on lands claimed by the United States and Spain. At a trial presided over by John Marshall, Burr is acquitted.

[1806.07.15] While exploring the southern portion of the Louisiana Purchase, Zebulon Pike sees the famous peak that now bears his name.

[1807.06.22] The British frigate Leopard fires on the American warship Chesapeake, killing three Americans and forcibly removing four alleged British navy deserters.

[1807.09.04] Robert Fulton sails his steamship the Clermont on the Hudson River, inaugurating a new era of steam-powered transportation.

[1808.01.01] Congress prohibits the African slave trade.

[1808.03.01] The Non-Intercourse Act prohibits imports from Britain and France and bans their ships from U.S. ports.

[1810] U.S. population: 7,239,881.

[1810] The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, originally founded by the Congregationalist Church, begins to send Protestant missionaries to foreign countries and Indian tribes.

[1810.05.01] Macon's Bill No. 2, which replaces the Non-Intercourse Act, reopens trade with Britain and France, but provides that if either country agrees to respect American shipping, the U.S. will cut off trade with the other.

[1810.10.27] Following a revolt by American settlers in West Florida in September, the U.S. annexes the region.

[1811.01] A slave insurrection in Louisiana results in the deaths of some 75 slaves.

[1811.11.07] William Henry Harrison and 800 soldiers defeat Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee prophet, and destroy Prophetstown.

[1812] The word "gerrymander" enters the politics after the Massachusetts Republicans reapportion the state's Senate districts. One district resembles a salamander, or, as a Federalist put it, a gerrymander (after Gov. Elbridge Gerry).

[1812.06.18] By a vote of 79-49 in the House and 19-13 in the Senate, the United States declares war against Britain over interference with American shipping and impressments of American seamen. Two days earlier, the British had repealed trade restrictions, but news o

[1813.09.10] Lieut. Oliver Hazzard Perry announces his naval victory at the battle of Lake Erie with the famous words: "We have met the enemy and they are ours."

[1813.10.05] The Indian leader Tecumseh is killed at the battle of the Thames in Canada, ending his hopes for an Indian confederation resisting American expansion.

[1814] Francis Cabot Lowell opens the first U.S. factory able to convert raw cotton into cloth using power machinery.

[1814.05.27] The Creek Chief Red Eagle surrenders to General Andrew Jackson after the battle of Horse Shoe Bend, opening southern and western Alabama to white settlement.

[1814.08.24] The British avenge an American raid on York, Ontario (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada, by setting fire to the White House and the Capitol.

[1814.09.14] Lawyer Francis Scott Key, detained on a British warship, writes "The Star-Spangled Banner," which was destined to become the country's national anthem.

[1814.12.15] (-January 1815) Hartford Convention. Federalists call for the repeal of the Three-Fifths compromise

[1814.12.24] A peace treaty ending the War of 1812 is signed at Ghent, Belgium.

[1815.01.08] Unaware of a peace treaty signed two weeks earlier, General Andrew Jackson stops a British attack at the Battle of New Orleans. British forces suffer 2036 casualties

[1815.07.03] Algiers releases American captives and agrees to end its demand for tribute payments.

[1816] Richard Allen forms the African Methodist Episcopal Church

[1816] The American Bible Society is founded.

[1816.04.10] Congress charters the Second Bank of the United States.

[1816.12] The American Colonization Society was established to transport free blacks to Africa.

[1817] Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet founds a free public school for the deaf in Hartford, Conn.

[1817.04.28] (-29) The Rush-Bagot Convention begins the process of disarmament along the U.S. Canadian boundary.

[1817.12.27] Andrew Jackson marches into Florida in order to stop raids by Indians, fugitive slaves, and white outlaws on American territory.

[1819] U.S. population: 9,638,453.

[1819] The financial Panic of 1819, the country's first major economic depression, produces political division and calls for the democratization of state constitutions and an end to imprisonment for debt.

[1819.02.13] A Firebell in the Night. A political crisis arises when Rep. James Tallmadge of N.Y. proposes an amendment to a bill granting statehood to Missouri. He proposes that all slave children be freed when they reach their 25th birthday and that any further intr

[1820] U.S. population: 9,638,453.

[1820.03.03] The Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude. Missouri is admitted as a slave state, and Maine (up to then a part of Massachusetts) is admitted as a free state.

[1820.04.24] The Land Act of 1820 reduces the price of land to $1.25 an acre for a minimum of 80 acres (down from $1.64 per acre for a minimum of 160 acres).

[1821] Emma Hart Willard opens the Troy Female Seminary, the first institution in the United States to offer a high school education for girls.

[1822] Stephen F. Austin establishes an American colony in Texas.

[1822] The American Colonization Society founds Liberia as a colony for free blacks from the United States.

[1822.05] Denmark Vesey, a former slave who had purchased his freedom after winning a lottery, organizes an insurrection in Charleston, S.C. After several slaves informed their masters of the plot, 131 blacks were arrested and 35 were hanged.

[1823.12.02] Responding to a fear that Russia would seize control of the Pacific Coast and that European powers would assist Spain in reclaiming its New World colonies, President James Monroe announces what has become known as the Monroe Doctrine. He declares that the

[1824] "The Red Harlot of Infidelity," Frances Wright, arrives from Scotland, and lectures publicly on birth control, women's rights, and abolition.

[1825.01.03] In Indiana, Robert Owen establishes New Harmony, the first secular utopian community.

[1826] The Anti-Masonic Party was founded after William Morgan of Batavia, N.Y., was kidnapped and presumably murdered after the threatens to publish a book revealing the secrets of the Masonic Order.

[1826.07.04] Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

[1827] Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm publish the first African American newspapers, Freedom's Journal.

[1827] Massachusetts enacts the first law requiring every community with 500 or more families to establish a high school.

[1829] David Walker, a free black living in Boston, issues his militant Appeal, demanding the abolition of slavery and an end to racial discrimination.

[1829.04.06] Mexico forbids further U.S. immigration into Texas and reconfirms its constitutional prohibition on slavery.

[1830] U.S. population: 12,866,020.

[1830.01.27] "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" In his celebrated debate with Sen. Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina over federal land policy, Sen. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts rejected the idea that the states could nullify federal laws.

[1830.04.06] Joseph Smith founds the Mormon Church.

[1830.04.13] At a Jefferson day dinner, Jackson expresses his opposition to the doctrine of nullification, proposing a toast: "Our Union: It must be preserved." Vice President John C. Calhoun responded: "The Union, next to our liberty, most dear!"

[1830.05.28] President Jackson signs the Indian Removal Acts, which promises financial compensation to Indian tribes that agree to resettle on lands west of the Mississippi River.

[1830.09.25] The first national Negro convention is held in Philadelphia.

[1831.01.01] A 25-year-old Bostonian, William Lloyd Garrison, publishes the first issue of the Liberator, the first publication dedicated to immediate emancipation of slaves without compensation to their owners. He promises: "I will not equivocate--I will not excuse--

[1831.08] William Miller predicts that the second coming of Christ was imminent and that "cleansing by fire" would occur between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844.

[1831.08.21] Nat Turner, a Baptist preacher, leads a slave insurrection in southern Virginia, which provokes a debate in the Virginia legislature about whether slavery should be abolished.

[1832] John Kaspar Spurzheim of Vienna introduces phrenology into America. Phrenology, an early example of the science of human behavior, taught that a person's character could be determined by studying the shape of a person's skull.

[1832.01.21] Sen. William Marcy of New York defends the Spoils System of party patronage with the phrase, "To the victor belong the spoils."

[1832.04.06] The Black Hawk War begins when Black Hawk, chief of the Sauk Indians, crosses the Mississippi River to plant corn on the tribe's old fields in Illinois. The Sauks had ceded their lands in exchange for new land in Iowa, but were unable to support themselve

[1832.08] The United States's first school for the blind opens under the direction of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe.

[1832.11.24] South Carolina declares the federal tariff null and void.

[1832.12.28] John C. Calhoun becomes the first Vice President after to resign, after he is elected as a Senator from South Carolina.

[1833] Samuel Colt introduces the "six-shooter," the first handgun with a revolving barrel.

[1833] Massachusetts becomes the last state to end tax support for churches.

[1833.03.02] President Andrew Jackson signs Henry Clay's compromise Tariff of 1833, which reduces duties on imported goods, and the Force Act, authorizing him to use military force enforce the federal tariff.

[1833.03.15] South Carolina revokes its Ordinance of Nullification. Three days later, it nullifies the Force Act.

[1833.09.23] Andrew Jackson fires his Secretary of the Treasury for refusing to withdraw government deposits from the Second Bank of the United States and place them in state banks.

[1833.12.03] The first coeducational college in the United States, Oberlin, opens, with a class of 29 men and 15 women. In 1835, Oberlin became the first college to admit African Americans.

[1833.12.04] The American Anti-Slavery Society is founded in Philadelphia.

[1834] Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna overthrows Mexico's constitutional government.

[1834.03.28] The U.S. Senate votes to censure Andrew Jackson for removing government deposits from the Bank of the United States, accusing the President of having "assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws." The Senate expunge

[1835] American colonists in Texas revolt against Mexican rule.

[1835.01] For the only time in American history, the United States was free from debt

[1835.01.30] The first attempt on the life of a president occurs. In the U.S. Capitol, Richard Lawrence fired two pistols at the president at point blank range. Miraculously, both pistols misfire. Lawrence was later found to be insane.

[1835.07.08] The Liberty Bell cracks as it tolls the death of Chief Justice John Marshall.

[1835.10.21] A Boston crowd mobs William Lloyd Garrison and almost lynches him. He is placed in a jail for his own safety.

[1836] The viciously anti-Catholic novel appears, Awful Disclosure of Maria Monk, as Exhibited in a Narrative of Her Suffering during a Residence of Five Years as a Novice, and Two Years as a Black Nun, in the Hotel Dieu Nunnery at Montreal.

[1836.03.02] Texas declares its independence from Mexico.

[1836.03.06] Mexican troops storm the Texans at the Alamo, a former San Antonio mission defended by 182 Texans, including the frontier heroes David Crockett and James Bowie. The Alamo's defenders included a number of Tejanos.

[1836.03.27] Santa Anna orders 330 Texas prisoners executed at Goliad.

[1836.04.21] East of present-day Houston, Gen. Sam Houston's troops defeat the Mexican Army and capture Santa Anna, forcing him to recognize Texas independence.

[1836.05.25] The House of Representatives adopts the Gag Rule, voting to table all antislavery petitions without discussion.

[1836.07.04] Marcus and Narcissa Prentiss Whitman and Henry H. and Eliza Hart Spalding establish a mission near present-day Walla Walla, Washington.

[1836.07.11] The Treasury Department issues the Species Circular, requiring payment in gold or silver for public lands. President Jackson's critics blamed the Species Circular for the Panic of 1837.

[1837] John Deere introduces a plow with a steel blade.

[1837.03] The Panic of 1837 begins and lasts until 1843.

[1837.08.31] Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers his "American Scholar" address, in which he calls for a distinctive national literature rooted in American experience.

[1837.11] Mary Lyon opens the first woman's college, Mount Holyoke, in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

[1837.11.07] Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy becomes the abolitionist movement's first martyr when he is murdered by a proslavery mob in Alton, Illinois, across from slaveholding St. Louis.

[1838] Samuel F.B. Mores develops an alphabet of dots and dashes, making communication with the telegraph possible.

[1838.12] 14,000 Cherokees are forcibly removed from western Georgia and southeastern Tennessee and marched down the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma. Some 4,000 died en route.

[1839] Enslaved Africans aboard the Spanish ship L'Amistad revolt. After their capture off Long Island, the Van Buren administration tried to have the captives returned to Spain. In 1841, the Supreme Court ruled that the Amistad captives had been illegally ensla

[1840] U.S. population: 17,069,453.

[1840.03.31] President Martin Van Buren institutes a 10-hour work day for federal employees.

[1841] The first wagon train arrives in California.

[1841.03] Dorothea Dix is shocked when she enters the East Cambridge, Mass., House of Correction and observes the ill-treatment of the mentally ill. After a two-year investigation, she submits a Memorial to the Massachusetts legislation, describing the mentally ill

[1841.04.01] Brook Farm, a utopian community near Boston inspired by American Transcendentalism, seeks to combine manual labor and intellectual pursuits.

[1841.04.04] President William Henry Harrison dies after 30 days in office.

[1841.10.27] Creole Affair. Slaves on the brig Creole revolt and sail to the Bahamas. Britain refused to return the slaves but the U.S. won financial compensation.

[1842] The Massachusetts Supreme Court upholds the right of workers to organize in the case of Commonwealth v. Hunt.

[1842.05] The Dorr War. To protest Rhode Island's outdated charter of 1663 which restricted voting rights to property holders and their oldest sons, Thomas Dorr and his supporters unsuccessfully attempted to capture the armory at Providence. A new Constitution was

[1843.08.23] Mexico warns that American annexation of Texas would be "equivalent to a declaration of war against the Mexican government."

[1844.05.03] Rioting erupts in Philadelphia when anti-Catholic "Native Americans try to hold a street meeting in the heavily Irish Kensington district.

[1844.05.24] Samuel F.B. Morse sends the first message by telegraph: "What hath God wrought." He sent the message from Washington to Baltimore.

[1844.06.27] A mob storms a Carthage, Ill., jail, and murders Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, and his brother. Smith was being held for destroying the printing press of a dissident who had attacked the practice of polygamy.

[1844.12.03] The House of Representatives lifts the Gag Rule.

[1845] The Baptist Church splits over the slavery issue.

[1845.07] John L. O'Sullivan, the editor of the U.S. Magazine and Democratic Review, declares that the United States has a "manifest destiny" to occupy the North American continent. Manifest destiny became one of the most influential slogans in American history.

[1845.08] A blight devastates the Irish potato crop. Over 1 million people died and 2 million emigrated, 1.3 million to the United States.

[1845.12.29] Texas is admitted to the Union as a slave state.

[1846.01] President James K. Polk orders Gen. Zachary Taylor to march southward from Corpus Christi and occupy position near the Rio Grande River, 150 miles south of the Texas border as defined by the Spanish and Mexican authorities.

[1846.05.04] Michigan becomes the first state to abolish capital punishment.

[1846.05.13] President Polk tells Congress that Mexico has "invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil." Congress then declares war on Mexico.

[1846.06.15] The United States accepts the 49th parallel as the boundary between the United States and Canada west of the Great Lakes.

[1846.07.23] Henry David Thoreau, living in a cabin at Walden Pond, near Concord, Mass., was arrested for refusing to pay a $1 poll tax, his protest against slavery and the Mexican War. This incident that inspired him to write the essay Civil Disobedience, in which he

[1846.08] Rep. David Wilmot submits an amendment to a military appropriations bill prohibiting slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. The proviso passes the house twice but is defeated in the Senate.

[1846.10] A party of pioneers headed by George Donner is trapped in the Sierras by early snows. In April 1847, 47 survivors of the original party of 82 finally reached California.

[1847.07.24] The first Mormons reach the Great Salt Lake.

[1847.09.13] (-14) Mexico City falls to a U.S. army under Gen. Winfield Scott.

[1848] Alexander T. Stewart opens the first department store on Broadway in New York.

[1848] The Free Soil party is formed, opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories.

[1848] New York State grants married women the right to own property apart from their husbands.

[1848.01.24] James Marshall discovers gold at John Sutter's sawmill near Sacramento, Calif.

[1848.02.02] The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexico War. The American negotiator, Nicholas Trist, had been ordered home four months earlier, but had continued the negotiations. The United States acquired California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and parts of Ariz

[1849] 80,000 people migrate to California

[1849] Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the United States' first women to receive a medical degree.

[1850] U.S. population: 23,191,876.

[1850] The U.S. navy and merchant marine outlaw flogging.

[1850.08] Congress adopts the Compromise of 1850, which admits California to the Union as a free state, but does not forbid slavery in other territories acquired from Mexico. It also prohibits the sale of slaves in Washington, D.C. and includes a strict law requiri

[1850.10.23] (-24) The first national women's rights convention, held in Worcester, Mass., attracts delegates from nine states.

[1851.02.18] A Boston crowd rescues Shadrack, a fugitive slave, from court custody.

[1851.06.02] Maine adopts a law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, leading future prohibition statutes to be called Maine laws.

[1852.03.20] Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin, which sells 300,000 copies in a year and a million copies in 16 months. When Stowe met President Lincoln at the White House, he reportedly asked her: "Is this the little woman whose book made such a great

[1853.12.30] Gadsden Purchase. Mexico sells the United States 29,640 square miles of territory south of the Gila River (in what is now southern Arizona and New Mexico) for $10 million.

[1854] Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison publicly burns a copy of the Constitution, calling it "a covenant with death and an agreement with Hell."

[1854] Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden, which is based on his experiences living beside Walden Pond near Concord, Mass. From July 1845 to September 1847. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," he writes.

[1854.01.23] Sen. Stephen Douglas introduces the Kansas Nebraska Act, which repeals the Missouri Compromises and opens Kansas and Nebraska to white settlement.

[1854.02.04] Alvan Bovay, a Ripon, Wisc., attorney, proposes that opponents of slavery organize a new political party, the Republican party.

[1854.03.31] Commodore Matthew C. Perry negotiates the Treaty of Kanagawa, opening up Japan to the West.

[1854.04.26] Eli Thayer founds the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society to encourage opponents of slavery to move to Kansas.

[1854.06.02] In Boston, the U.S. government returns Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave, to slavery.

[1854.10.18] Ostend Manifesto. American ministers James Buchanan, John Y. Mason, and Pierre Soule, meeting in Belgium, urge the United States to seize Cuba militarily if Spain refuses to sell the island. Many Northerners regarded this as a plot to extend slavery.

[1855] Walt Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass.

[1855] Abraham Lincoln writes: "Our progress in degeneracy appears to me pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal except Negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it w

[1855.03.30] Pro-slavery forces win the territorial elections in Kansas. Some 6000 votes are cast even though only 2000 voters are registered, many by pro-slavery "border ruffians" from Missouri. The pro-slavery government passes laws imposing the death penalty for ai

[1856.05.19] Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachuetts denounces "The Crime Against Kansas," which he describes as the rape of a virgin territory by pro-slavery forces. In his speech, Sumner accuses a South Carolina Senator of taking "the harlot Slavery" for his mistress."

[1856.05.21] The "Sack of Lawrence." Pro-slavery forces in Kansas burn a hotel and other buildings in Lawrence, Kansas.

[1856.05.22] Sen. Butler's nephew, Representative Preston Brooks, beats Sen. Sumner with a cane, leaving him disabled for three years.

[1856.05.25] May 25: In reprisal for the "Sack of Lawrence" and the attack on Sumner, John Brown and six companions murder five pro-slavery men at Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas. A war of reprisals left 200 dead in "Bleeding Kansas."

[1857.03.06] In the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford, the Supreme Court rules that the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights were not intended to apply to African Americans and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. The decision also denied Congress and terr

[1857.03.23] Elisha Otis installs the first passenger elevator in a New York department store.

[1857.08.21] (~10.15) Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, candidates for the US Senate from Illinois, hold seven debates. The Democratic majority in the Illinois legislature reelected Douglas to the Senate.

[1857.08.24] The Financial Panic of 1857 begins

[1857.10.25] Senator William Seward of New York declares that there is an "irrepressible conflict" between the free North and the slave South.

[1858.06.16] Abraham Lincoln accepts the Republican nomination for US Senate with the famous phrase, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

[1859] Daniel Decatur Emmett, a Northerner from Ohio, composes Dixie for a New York minstrel show.

[1859.05.12] A commercial convention in Vicksburg, Miss., calls for the African slave trade to be reopened.

[1859.08.27] "Colonel" Edwin L. Drake strikes oil at Titusville, Pa. This was the first deliberate attempt to drill for oil underground.

[1859.10.16] John Brown and some 21 followers seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va. He is taken prisoner two days later, US Marines, led by Col. Robert E. Lee.

[1859.10.31] Refusing to plead insanity as a defense, John Brown is put on trial and is convicted of treason, criminal conspiracy, and murder. He is hanged Dec. 2. Ralph Waldo Emerson hails Brown as a "new saint" who "will make the gallows glorious like the cross."

[1860] US population: 31,443,321.

[1860] Publisher Erastus Beadle issues the first dime novels, which actually sell for a nickel.

[1860.04.03] The Pony Express inaugurates overland male service between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif.

[1860.04.23] Southern delegates walk out of the Democratic National Convention in Charleston, S.C. The convention adjourns without nominating a presidential candidate.

[1860.06.18] (~23) Northern Democrats, convening in Baltimore, nominate Stephen Douglas for the presidency. On June 28, Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge as their presidential candidate.

[1860.11.06] Abraham Lincoln tops a four-candidate field to be elected president. Although he received less than 40 percent of the vote, and no votes in the South, he won an overwhelming Electoral College victory.

[1860.12.20] South Carolina, voting 169-0, secedes from the Union.

[1861] Yale University confers the U.S.'s first Ph.D.

[1861.01.09] South Carolina blocks a federal ship, the Star of the West, from resupplying Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor.

[1861.02.04] Representatives from six seceding states adopt a Confederate constitution in Montgomery, Ala. Five days later, they elect Jefferson Davis, a former US Senator from Mississippi, the president of the Confederate States of America.

[1861.04.12] At 4:30 a.m., Confederate guns fire on Fort Sumter, a federal installation in South Carolina's Charleston harbor. The fort surrendered after 34 hours of bombardment.

[1861.04.19] President Lincoln orders a blockade of Confederate ports.

[1861.07.18] At the first battle of Bull Run, near Manassass, Va., Confederate forces rout a Union army.

[1861.08.05] To help finance the Civil War, Congress enacts taxes on real estate and personal income.

[1861.10.24] President Abraham Lincoln receives the first transcontinental telegraph message.

[1861.11.07] Union forces capture Port Royal Island on the South Carolina coast.

[1862] The Morrill Land Grant Act gives each state 30,000 acres per member of Congress to be used to create colleges of agriculture and mechanical arts. 69 land grant colleges were established on 13 million acres.

[1862.03.09] The first battle between ironclad warships takes place off Hampton Roads, Va., where the Union's Monitor and the Confederate's Merrimac fight to a draw.

[1862.05.01] Capt. David G. Farragut captures New Orleans.

[1862.05.20] President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, giving settlers title to 160 acres if they worked the land for five years. By 1890, 375,000 homesteaders received 48 million acres.

[1862.06.01] Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is appointed commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.

[1862.07] General David Hunter organizes the first black regiment, the First Carolina.

[1862.07.22] President Lincoln tells his cabinet that he intends to issue an emancipation proclamation, but agrees to wait for a military victory so that this will not appear to be an act of desperation.

[1862.08.18] A Sioux uprising begins in Minnesota after the government fails to pay cash annuities agreed to under treaty. About a thousand white settlers die before the Sioux are defeated in September.

[1862.09.17] Union troops under Gen. George McClellan halt Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North at the battle of Antietam in western Maryland.

[1862.09.22] President Lincoln issues his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that on Jan. 1, 1863 slaves in areas still in rebellion would be declared free.

[1862.12.17] Gen. Ulysses S. Grant issues his notorious Gen. Order #11, which expels Jews from his department. The order was immediately rescinded by Pres. Lincoln.

[1863] Congress authorizes a standard track width for railroads: 4' 8 1/2".

[1863.01.01] President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in areas in rebellion (excluding certain parts of Louisiana and Virginia). The Proclamation immediately freed slaves in parts of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina.

[1863.02.25] Congress passes the National Banking Act, establishing nationally-chartered banks.

[1863.03.03] Congress requires all males between 20 and 45 register for military service. Draftees could be exempted from service by paying $300 or providing a substitute.

[1863.07.03] (~4) The Battle of Gettysburg. In an effort to spur European intervention, Gen. Robert E. Lee and his army invade the North. By accident, Lee's forces encounter George G. Meade's troops at Gettysburg, Pa., leading to the largest battle in the western hemi

[1863.07.05] A Confederate army at Vicksburg surrenders to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River. More than 29,000 Confederate troops surrender.

[1863.07.11] (~14) The New York City Draft Riots. Four days of rioting leave a thousand people dead or wounded before troops brought from Gettysburg restore order.

[1863.08.21] Quantrill's Raiders, which includes Frank and Jesse James, attack Lawrence, Kansas., burning 185 buildings.

[1863.10] President Lincoln proclaims the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

[1863.11.19] At a ceremony marking the dedication of a battlefield cemetery delivers the Gettysburg Address.

[1864.03.10] Ulysses S. Grant assumes command of the Union army.

[1864.04.12] At Fort Pillow, Tenn., Confederate Gen. Nathan Forrest's cavalry massacres African American soldiers after they had surrendered.

[1864.07.30] The Battle of the Crater. At Petersburg, Va., Union troops dig a 586' tunnel underneath Confederate Lines and fill it with 8,000 lbs. of gunpowder.

[1864.08.05] At the battle of Mobile Bay, Ala., Union Adm. David Farragut, declaring "Damn the torpedoes! Go ahead!defeats a Confederate fleet. The torpedoes were floating casks of gunpowder with contact fuses.

[1864.11.08] Pres. Lincoln defeats Democratic candidate George B. McClellan.

[1864.11.29] At dawn, some 700 Colorado volunteers led by Col. John Chivington attack a camp of 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians who were flying an American flag and a white flag of truce. By nightfall, at least 150 Indians, mostly women and children, had been killed

[1865.03.03] Congress establishes the Freedman's Bureau.

[1865.03.13] The Confederacy decides to permit slaves to serve in the military.

[1865.04.09] Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomatox Courthouse, Va.

[1865.04.14] On Good Friday, John Wilkes Booth shoots President Abraham Lincoln at Washington's Ford's Theater. As he leaps to the stage (breaking a shinbone), Booth shouts, "Sic Semper Tyrannis (Thus Always to Tyrants)." Lincoln died the next morning. Andrew Johnson

[1865.11.10] Confederate Capt. Henry Wirz, commandant of Andersonville, Ga., prison camp, is hanged for war crimes. He is accused of ordering prisoners shot on sight, of sending bloodhounds after escaped prisoners, and injecting prisoners with deadly vaccines.

[1865.12.18] The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolishes slavery.

[1865.12.24] The Ku Klux Klan is founded in Pulaski, Tenn. Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest is appointed the first Grand Wizard.

[1866] The first big cattle drive takes place when cowboys drive 260,000 head from Texas to Kansans, Missouri, and Iowa.

[1866] The first Young Woman's Christian Association in the US opens in Boston.

[1866.04.09] Congress passes the Civil Rights Act over President Andrew Johnson's veto, granting citizenship and civil rights to all persons born in the United States (except Indians) and providing for the punishment of those who violate those rights.

[1867] The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, the first organization of American farmers, is founded.

[1867.03.02] The first Reconstruction Act imposes martial law on the southern states, splits them into five military districts, and provides for the restoration of civil government when they ratify the 14th Amendment.

[1867.03.02] Congress passes the Tenure of Office Act, which denies the president to remove officials who had been appointed with the Senate's consent.

[1867.03.23] The second Reconstruction Act, passed over President Johnson's veto, provides for the registration of all qualified voters.

[1867.03.30] "Seward's Icebox." Russia sells Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million, or less than 2 cents an acre.

[1867.07.19] The third Reconstruction Act requires the southern states to ratify the 15th Amendment before they are readmitted to the Union.

[1868.02.24] The House of Representatives votes to impeach President Andrew Johnson in part for violating the Tenure of Office Act, which forbid him to dismiss a cabinet member without congressional approval. The Senate trial lasted 11 and a half weeks. On the major c

[1868.06.25] Congress enacts an 8-hour workday for workers employed by the government.

[1868.07.28] The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States and guarantees due process and equal protection of the laws. It serves as the basis for applying the rights specified in the US Constitution to the states.

[1868.12.25] President Johnson grants amnesty to those who had participated in "insurrection or rebellion" against the United States.

[1869.01] When Commanche Chief Toch-a-way informs Gen. Philip H. Sheridan that he is a "good Indian," Sheridan reportedly replied: "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

[1869.05.10] A golden spike is driven into a railroad tie at Promontory Point, Utah, completing the transcontinental railroad. Built in just over three years by 20,000 workers, it had 1,775 miles of track. The railroad's promoters received 23 million acres of land and

[1870] US population: 39,818,449.

[1870] 31-year-old John D. Rockefeller forms Standard Oil of Ohio.

[1870.02.25] Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi becomes the first African American to serve in the US Senate. Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the first black Representative.

[1870.03.30] The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right to vote regardless "of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

[1871] P.T. Barnum opens his three-ring circus, hailing it as the "Greatest Show on Earth."

[1871.01] Victoria Woodhull petitions Congress demanding that women receive the vote under the 14th Amendment.

[1871.03.03] Congress declares that Indian tribes will no longer be treated as independent nations with whom the government must conduct negotiations.

[1871.10.08] The Great Chicago Fire claims 250 lives and destroys 17,500 buildings.

[1872] Montgomery Ward begins to sell goods to rural customers by mail.

[1872.11.05] Susan B. Anthony and other women's suffrage advocates are arrested for attempting to vote in Rochester, N.Y.

[1873.03.03] The Comstock Act prohibits the mailing of obscene literature.

[1873.09.18] The Financial Panic of 1873 begins. 5,183 business fail.

[1874] The introduction of barbed wire provides the first economical way to fence in cattle on the Great Plains.

[1874] The discovery of gold leads thousands of prospectors to trespass on Indian lands the Black Hills in Dakota territory.

[1874] The Women's Christian Temperance Union is founded.

[1874.03.11] 4-years-old Charley Brewster Ross is abducted, the country's first kidnapping for ransom. The child was never found.

[1874.08.21] The Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, the nation's best-known preacher, is sued by newspaper editor Theodore Tilton for alienation of his wife's affections. The trial resulted in a hung jury.

[1875.03.01] Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to guarantee equal use of public accommodations and places of public amusement. It also forbids the exclusion of African Americans from jury duty.

[1876.02.14] 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

[1876.05] The nation celebrates its centennial by opening an International Exhibition in Philadelphia.

[1876.06.25] George A. Custer and 265 officers and enlisted men are killed by Sioux Indians led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Little Horn River in Montana.

[1877] Charles Elmer Hires introduces root beer.

[1877.02.27] An electoral commission declares Rutherford Hayes the winner of the disputed presidential election.

[1877.04.10] President Hayes begins to withdraw federal troops from the South, marking the official end to Reconstruction.

[1877.06] (~Oct) Federal troops pursue and capture Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians of Oregon and force them to live on an Oklahoma reservation.

[1877.07.16] The Great Railroad Strikes begins in Marinsburg, W. Va., after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad imposes a 10 percent wage cut.

[1877.12.06] 30-year-old Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.

[1878] German engineer Karl Benz produces the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine.

[1878.01.10] The Senate defeats a woman's suffrage amendment 34-16.

[1879.02.15] Congress grants woman attorneys the right to argue cases before the Supreme Court.

[1879.10.21] Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.

[1880] US population: 50,155,783

[1881] Helen Hunt Jackson's Century of Dishonor recounts the government's unjust treatment of Native Americans.

[1881.07.02] President James Garfield is shot by Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled office-seeker. He died on Sept. 19.

[1881.07.04] Booker T. Washington opens Tuskegee Institute.

[1881.07.19] Sitting Bull and other Sioux Indians return to the United States from Canada.

[1882] In Pace v. Alabama, the Supreme Court rules that an Alabama law imposing severe punishment on illegal interracial intercourse than for illegal intercourse between parties of the same race did not violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

[1882] Attorney Samuel Dodd devises the trust, under which stockholders turn over control of previously independent companies to a board of trustees.

[1882.05.06] Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese Chinese immigration for ten years.

[1883] Joseph Pulitzer purchases the New York World from Jay Gould. Circulation soars from 20,000 to 250,000 in four years.

[1883.01.16] Congress passes the Pendleton Act, establishing a Civil Service Commission and filling government positions by a merit system, including competitive examinations.

[1883.10.15] The Supreme Court rules that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 only forbids state-imposed discrimination, not that by individuals or corporations.

[1883.11.18] Railroads in the United States and Canada adopt a system of standard time.

[1884.05.01] Construction begins in Chicago on the first building with a steel skeleton, William Jenney's ten-story Home Insurance Company, marking the birth of the skyscraper.

[1884.10.09] Rev. Samuel D. Burchard of New York calls the Democrats the party of "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." With help of Irish-American voters, Democratic presidential nominee Grover Cleveland carried New York by 1,149 votes and won the election.

[1886] Dr. Stanton Coit opens the first settlement house in New York to provide social services to the poor.

[1886.05.01] Over 300,000 workers demonstrate in behalf of an eight-hour work day.

[1886.05.04] The Haymarket Square bombing in Chicago kills seven police officers and wounds sixty.

[1886.05.10] The Supreme Court holds that corporations are persons covered by the 14th Amendment, and are entitled to due process.

[1886.10.28] President Grover Cleveland unveils the Statue of Liberty.

[1886.12.08] The American Federation of Labor was founded, with Samuel Gompers as president. Membership was restricted to skilled craftsmen.

[1887.02.04] The Interstate Commerce Act requires railroads to charge reasonable rates and forbids them from from offering rate reductions to preferred customers.

[1887.02.08] The Dawes Severalty Act subdivides Indian reservations into individual plots of land of 160 to 320 acres. "Surplus" lands are sold to white settlers.

[1888] Edward Bellamy publishes his utopian novel, Looking Backward, which predicts a cooperative commonwealth.

[1889] New Jersey permits holding companies to buy up the stock of other corporations.

[1889.04.22] President Benjamin Harrison opens a portion of Oklahoma to white settlement.

[1889.05.31] Johnstown flood. An abandoned reservoir breaks, flooding the city of Johnstown, Pa., and killing 2,295 people.

[1890] US population: 62,947,714.

[1890] The US Bureau of the Census announces that the western frontier was now closed.

[1890.07.02] Congress passes the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

[1890.11.01] Mississippi Plan. Mississippi restricts black suffrage by requiring voters to demonstrate an ability to read and interpret the US Constitution.

[1890.12.15] Indian police kill Sitting Bull in South Dakota.

[1890.12.29] Wounded Knee Massacre.

[1891] James Naismith, a physical education instructor at the YMCA Training College in Springfield, Mass., invents basketball.

[1891.03.14] A New Orleans mobs breaks into a prison and kills eleven Sicilian immigrants accused of murdering the city's police chief.

[1891.05.19] The Populist party is founded in Cincinnati, Ohio.

[1891.09.22] 900,000 acres of land ceded to the Sauk, Fox, and Pottawatomi Indians is opened to white settlement.

[1892] The boll weevil arrives in Texas.

[1892.01.01] Ellis Island opens to screen immigrants. Twenty million immigrants passed through it before it was closed in 1954.

[1892.07.02] Homestead. Henry Clay Frick, who managed Andrew Carnegie's steelworks at Homestead, Pa., cuts wages, precipitating a strike that begins June 26. In a pitched battle with Pinkerton guards, brought in to protect the plant, ten strikers and three Pinkertons

[1892.07.04] The Populist party nominates James Baird Weaver, a former Union general from Iowa, for president. A banner across the stage states: "We Do Not Ask for Sympathy or Pity. We Ask for Justice."

[1892.10.12] The World's Columbian Exhibition opens in Chicago to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the New World. The first features the first Ferris Wheel.

[1893] Frederick Jackson Turner delivers his address on "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," exploring the the frontier experience's role in shaping American character.

[1893.01.17] Pro-American interests depose Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii.

[1894.05.01] Coxey's Army. Jacob Coxey leads a march on Washington by the unemployed.

[1894.05.10] Pullman Strike. Workers at the Pullman sleeping car plant in Chicago go on strike after the company cut wages without reducing rents in company-owned housing. On June 26, the American Railway Union begins to boycott trains carrying Pullman cars.

[1894.07.03] Federal troops enforce a court injunction forbidding the American Railway Union from interfering with interstate commerce and delivery of the mail.

[1895.05.20] The Supreme Court strikes down an income tax.

[1896.05.18] Plessy v. Ferguson. The US Supreme Court rules that segregation of blacks and whites was permitted under the Constitution so long as both races receive equal facilities.

[1896.07.07] "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." William Jennings Bryan electrified the Democratic convention with his "Cross of Gold" speech and received the party's nomination, but was defeated Nov. 3 by Republican William McKinley.

[1898.02.09] The de Lome letter, written by the Spanish minister to the United States, characterizes Pres. McKinley as a weakling lacking integrity. It is printed in William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal.

[1898.02.15] The battleship Maine blows up and sinks while anchored in Cuba's Havana harbor.

[1898.04.25] (~ Aug.12) Spanish-American War. As a result of the conflict, the United States acquires Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.

[1898.05.01] Commodore George Dewey's flotilla defeats the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines, suffering only eight wounded.

[1898.07.07] President McKinley signs a resolution annexing Hawaii.

[1899] The Philippines achieved independence in 1946.

[1899.05.18] (-July 29) Delegates from the US and 25 other nations meet at The Hague to discuss disarmament, arbitration of international disputes, protection of noncombatants, and limitations on methods of warfare.

[1899.10.14] The Literary Digest writes: "The ordinary horseless carriage is at present a luxury for the wealthy

[1900] Under a "Gentleman's Agreement" between Japan and the United States, Japan agrees to limit emigration of laborers to the United States.

[1900] U.S. population: 75,994,575.

[1901] Robert LaFollette takes office as Wisconsin's governor, and puts into effect the "Wisconsin Idea," which serves as a model for "progressive government." This provided for a direct primary in 1903 and a railroad commission in 1905.

[1901.01.10] Oil is discovered at Spindletop near Beaumont, Texas.

[1901.03.02] Under the Platt Amendment, Cuba authorizes the United States to maintain law and order and agreed to sell or lease the U.S. land to serve as naval stations.

[1901.03.03] U.S. Steel is organized, becoming the country's first billion dollar corporation.

[1901.09.06] President William McKinley is shot in Buffalo, N.Y. by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist. The president died on September 14, and is succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt.

[1902] The federal government files anti-trust suits against North Securities, a railroad holding company, and the beef trust in Chicago. Both suits were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

[1902.05.12] The United Mine Workers stage a strike against anthracite coal mine operators. President Roosevelt appointed a commission to mediate the settlement.

[1902.06.02] Oregon becomes the first state to institute the initiative and referendum, through which the people can initiate legislation.

[1902.07.17] Under the Newlands Reclamation Act, the federal government will build dams in sixteen western lands.

[1903.11.03] Panama revolts against Colombia rule, clearing the way for construction of an American canal.

[1903.12.17] With Orville Wright on board, and lasting just 12 seconds, the Wright brother make the first successful flight by a powered aircraft at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

[1904.12.06] President Theodore Roosevelt announces the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.

[1905.04.17] The Supreme Court strikes down a New York law that prohibited a banker from employing anyone more than 60 hours a week or 10 hours a day, ruling that it interfered with freedom of contract.

[1905.06.27] Socialists and labor radicals form the International Workers of the World (the IWW or the Wobblies) in Chicago. Big Bill Haywood, a representative from the Western Federation of Miners proclaims this meeting "the Continental Congress of the working class.

[1906] Upton Sinclair publishes The Jungle, an expose of working conditions in Chicago's meatpacking houses. Sinclair had hoped to generate sympathy for the working class, but wound up making the public concerned about adulterated food. "I aimed at the public's

[1906.04.18] The Great San Francisco Earthquake kills 400 people and causes $500 million worth of damage.

[1906.06.30] The Pure Food and Drug Act bars the sale of adulterated foods and drugs. That same day, to address the problems of contaminated and mislabeled meat, Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act providing for enforcement of sanitary regulations in the meat-pack

[1906.09.22] An anti-black riot in Atlanta results leaves 21 people dead, including 18 African Americans.

[1906.10.11] The San Francisco school board orders the segregation of all Japanese, Chinese, and Korean children. On March 13, 1907, under pressure from the President, San Fransico rescinds the action.

[1907] In his seventh annual message to Congress, President Theodore Roosevelt said: "We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible

[1907.12.16] "The Great White Fleet," consisting of sixteen battleships, sets sail for an around the world cruise.

[1908] In its decision in Muller v. Oregon, the Supreme Court acknowledged the need for facts, not just legal arguments, to establish the reasonableness of social legislation. Louis Brandeis, chief counsel for the State of Oregon, used social science data to pro

[1908.08.14] (-15) During two days of anti-black rioting in Springfield, Ill., two thousand African Americans are forced out of the city, two were lynched, and six others were killed.

[1908.12.24] New York City revokes the licenses of the city's movie theaters and returns them only when the theaters agree not to show immoral films.

[1908.12.26] Black boxer Jack Johnson knocks out Canadian Tommy Burns to become the heavyweight champion. White promoters searched for a "Great White Hope" to defeat Johnson. In 1915, he was defeated by Jess Willard in a fight that many believed was fixed.

[1909] Henry Ford introduces his Model T. Priced originally at $850, the Model T's price had fallen to $240 by 1924.

[1909.04.07] Explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reportedly reach the North Pole. Henson, who was African American, trained the dog teams, build the sledges, and spoke the language of the Eskimos.

[1909.05.31] (-June 1) The Niagara Movement. A biracial group of religious leaders and humanitiarians incorporates as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The organization demanded equal civil, political, and educational rights, and enforcem

[1910] U.S. population: 91,972,266.

[1910] The publication, The Fundamentals, spells out the basic precepts of fundamentalist religious belief: the literal accuracy of Scripture and the reality of the Virgin birth, the physical resurrection of Christ, vicarious atonement, and the physical second c

[1910.06.18] The Mann-Elkins Act extends the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission to include telegraph and telephone companies and gives it the power to suspend railroad rate increases pending investigation and court rulings.

[1910.06.25] White Slavery. The Mann Act makes it illegal to transport women acros state lines, or bring them into the United States, for immoral purposes. Red light districts in ten cities are closed.

[1910.08.10] In his New Nationalism speech, Theodore Roosevelt lays out his commitment to conservation, a graduated income tax, regulation of trusts, and the rights of labor.

[1910.11] The Mexican Revolution begins when Francisco Madero leads an uprising against President Porfirio Diaz.

[1911] Dissident Republicans bolt the party and form the Progressive Party, which endorses anti-trust enforcement, collective bargaining, and conservation of national resources.

[1911.03.25] 146 Jewish and Italian immigrant women are killed in a fire at New York's Triangle Shirtwaist Company.

[1912.01] 25,000 textile workers go on strike against the American Woolen Co. of Lawrence, Mass.

[1912.04.14] (-15) On its maiden voyage, the Titanic sinks south of Newfoundland

[1912.10.14] Theodore Roosevelt is shot in a Milwaukee hotel during a campaign tour. Roosevelt delivered a speech before going to a hospital.

[1913] Henry Ford introduces the assembly line, allowing him to produce a thousand Model T's daily. Ford also institutes a $5 work day.

[1913.02.17] An exhibition of avant garde, post-Impressionist art works opens at New York's 69th Regiment Armory.

[1913.02.25] The 16th Amendment permits an income tax. The federal income tax levies a tax of 1 percent on incomes above $3,000 for single individuals and above $4,000 for married couples. A 1 percent surtax is imposed on incomes above $20,000 rising to 6 percent on t

[1913.08.27] "Watchful waiting." President Wilson refuses the recognize the Mexican government of Gen. Victoriano Huerta, whose agents had assassinated President Francio Madero in February.

[1913.12.23] The Federal Reserve System is established, providing central control over the nation's currency and credit.

[1914] Edgar Rice Burroughs publishes Tarzan of the Apes, the story of a baby of English nobility who is raised by a band of African apes.

[1914.04.20] Company guards and National Guard troops attack striking coal miners at John D. Rockefeller's Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. in Ludlow, Colo. When the Ludow War is over, 74 people had died, including eleven children.

[1914.04.21] After the arrest of American sailors in Tampico, Mexico, President Woodrow Wilson orders American sailors and marines to occupy Vera Cruz. In November, after Mexican President Huerta fled the country, the president withdrew the troops.

[1914.06.28] The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austo-Hungarian throne, by a Serbian nationalist, ignites a chain of events that results in World War I.

[1914.08.15] The Panama Canal officially opens.

[1914.09.26] The Federal Trade Commission is established to prevent monopolies and unfair business practices.

[1915] Margaret Sanger, who coined the term "birth control," is arrested in New York for distributing contraceptive information. In October 1916, she opened the nation's first birth control clinic in Brooklyn.

[1915.02.08] D.W. Griffith's luridly racist film, Birth of a Nation, provides a sympathetic treatment of the Ku Klux Klan.

[1915.02.23] Nevada grants divorces after six months' residence.

[1915.05.07] The British ship, the Lusitania, is torpedoed and sinks off the Irish coast

[1915.07.06] Erich Muenter, a German instructor at Cornell University, commits suicide after detonating a bomb in the U.S. Senate reception room and shooting financier J. Pierpont Morgan.

[1915.08.17] Leo Frank, a Jew, is lynched in Atlanta, for allegedly murdering an employee at the National Pencil Company.

[1915.11] Labor leader Joe Hill, who had been convicted of murdering an ex-police officer, is executed by firing squad in Utah. His last words were, Don't mourn for me. Organize!"

[1915.12.04] Henry Ford charters a "Peace Ship," in an effort to end World War I.

[1916.03.09] Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, along with 1,500 men, crosses the U.S. border to attack Columbus, N. Mex. Pres. Wilson orders Brig. Gen. John "Black Jack" Pershing to capture Villa.

[1916.07.22] A bomb explodes at a pro-war preparedness parade in San Francisco, killing ten.

[1916.09.13] To prevent a nationwide railroad strike, the Adamson Eight-Hour Act mandates an 8-hour work day in the railroad industry.

[1917] Revolution topples the Czarist government in Russia. In March, Czar Nicholas II abdicates and a provisional government follows. In November, the Bolsheviks overthrow the provisional government.

[1917.03.07] The Associated Press publishes the "Zimmermann Telegram," which proposed a German alliance with Mexico and promised Mexico recovery of lost territory in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

[1917.04.02] In a speech asking Congress to declare war against Germany, President Wilson says, "The world must be made safe for democracy."

[1917.04.06] The United States declares war on the Central Powers. Six Senators and 50 Representatives vote against the declaration.

[1917.04.14] The president creates Committee on Public Information to censor newspapers and magazines.

[1917.05.18] The United States institutes a military draft. All men 21-30 are required to register.

[1917.06.15] Congress passes the Espionage Act, providing for a $10,000 fine and 20 years in prison for anyone who encourages disloyalty or interferes with the draft. Over 1,500 people were charged with violations of the law.

[1917.07.28] The War Industries Board is established to mobilize industry and ration goods to support the war effort.

[1917.09.05] Federal agents raid IWW headquarters in 24 cities. Ten leaders are arrested including "Big Bill" Haywood.

[1917.11] The British Foreign Office issues the Balfour Declaration, pledging support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."

[1918.01.08] President Woodrow Wilson issues his 14 Point plan for a lasting peace. It calls for open peace treaties without secret agreements

[1918.06.03] The Supreme Court invalidates a law prohibiting the interstate shipment of goods made by under aged children.

[1918.09.14] Socialist party leader Eugene Debs is sentenced to ten years in prison for violating the Espionage Act. He was pardoned by President Warren Harding in 1921.

[1918.10] A deadly influenza epidemic reaches its height. Altogether, the epidemic killed nearly 500,000 Americans.

[1919.01.18] The Versailles Peace Treaty ending World War I strips Germany of land and natural resources

[1919.01.29] The 18th Amendment to the Constitution bans "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of liquors." At the time the amendment was adopted, prohibition was already in effect in all southern and western states except California and Louisiana.

[1919.09] 350,000 steelworkers strike, following by 400,000 miners 40 days later. Altogether, 4 million workers went on strike during the year.

[1919.09.25] President Wilson collapses from a stroke.

[1919.11.07] Palmer Raids. Under orders from Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, Department of Justice agents raid the headquarters of leftist organizations in a dozen cities.

[1919.11.19] The Senate fails to ratify the Versailles Peace Treaty. The Senate voted 55-9, nine votes short of the required two-thirds majority.

[1920] U.S. population: 105,710,620.

[1920] Life expectancy had risen to 54 years from 49 years in 1901.

[1920.01.02] Government agents arrest members of the IWW and Communist Party in 33 cities. 556 aliens are deported for their political beliefs.

[1920.03.19] The Senate votes 49-35 to join the League of Nations, seven votes short of the two-thirds vote necessary for ratification. Defeat became certain when President Wilson instructed his supporters to vote down a League bill with Republican amendments attached

[1920.08.18] The Woman's Suffrage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified.

[1920.09.28] A Chicago grand jury indicts 8 players on the Chicago "Black Sox" for throwing the 1919 World Series. The players were acquitted but were later banned from baseball.

[1921.05.19] Congress institutes a quota system that limits immigration to 3 percent of a nationality's number in the 1910 Census.

[1921.11.12] At the Washington Conference for Limitation of Armaments, conferees agree to restrict future construction of warships.

[1924.05] Congress reduces immigration to approximately 150,000 people a year limiting each nationality to 2 percent of the number of persons in the U.S. in 1890.

[1924.05] "The Crime of the Century." Prodigies Nathan Leopold, Jr., and Richard Loeb confess to kidnapping and killing 13-year-old Bobby Franks for "the thrill of it."

[1924.11] Two states, Wyoming and Texas elected women governors.

[1925.07] At the "Monkey" Trial in Dayton, Tenn., schoolteacher John Scopes is tried for violating a Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of evolution. Scope's defense attorney Clarence Darrow called prosecuting attorney William Jennings Bryan to the stand, and r

[1926] Henry Ford introduces the 49-hour work week in the auto industry.

[1927.05.21] 25-year-old Charles Lindbergh flies from Long Island to Paris in 33 hours and 29 minutes.

[1927.08.23] Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed in Massachusetts for the 1920 killing of a factory guard, despite protests that they were being punished for their radical beliefs.

[1927.10.06] The Jazz Singer, the first "talkie," premieres. The first words: "You ain't heard nothing yet."

[1928.08.27] Fifteen nations sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounces war "as an instrument of national policy." Eventually sixty nations ratified that agreement, which lacked any enforcement mechanism.

[1929.02.14] St. Valentine's Day Massacre. 14 members of a Chicago gang are shot to death in a Chicago warehouse on orders from Al Capone.

[1929.10.29] Black Tuesday. The bull market of the late 1920s comes to a crashing end. Between September 3 and December 1, stocks declined $26 billion in value.

[1930] U.S. population: 123,203,000

[1930.06.17] The Smoot-Hawley Tariff raises duties on agricultural and manufactured goods, triggering foreign retaliation.

[1931.03.25] Nine black youths, the "Scottboro Boys, are charged with rape. The case established the right of African Americans to serve on juries.

[1931.09] A bank panic leads 305 banks to close in September and another 522 in October.

[1932.01.22] The Reconstruction Finance Corporation is established to provide loans to banks, railroads, and insurance companies.

[1932.03.01] The son of aviator Charles Lindbergh is kidnapped.

[1932.07.02] Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt promises a "New Deal" for the American people.

[1932.07.28] Bonus Army. President Herbert Hoover orders the army to remove 15,000 WWI veterans who had been camped in Washington for two months demanding early payment of a bonus due in 1945.

[1933.01.30] Adolf Hitler, leader of Germany's Nazi party, is appointed Chancellor.

[1933.03.04] Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes President and launches the New Deal. In his inaugural address, he says: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." During his first hundred days in office, Congress enacts the AAA, which provides farmers with payments f

[1933.12.05] Prohibition is repealed.

[1934.01.01] Dr. Francis Townsend, a 66-year-old retired dentist, proposes federally-funded pensions for the elderly.

[1934.07.22] Public Enemy Number 1, bank robber John Dillinger, is shot and killed by the FBI while leaving a movie theater in Chicago.

[1934.09.15] The Nuremberg Laws strip German Jews of and prohibit intermarriage with non-Jews.

[1935.05.27] The Supreme Court declares the national industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional, suggesting that any federal effort to legislate wages, prices, and working conditions was invalid.

[1935.06.10] Alcoholic Anonymous is organized in New York City.

[1935.07.05] The Wagner Act guarantees workers' right to bargain collectively.

[1935.08.14] President Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act.

[1935.09.08] Huey Long is assassinated in Louisiana's state capitol.

[1935.10.18] The Committee for Industrial Organization is formed with John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers, as its head. In 1938, it became the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Unlike the AFL, it did not limit membership to skilled workers.

[1936] Jesse Owens wins four medals at the Olympics in Berlin, rebutting Hitler's claims about the superiority of the Aryan race.

[1936.03.07] In violation of the Versailles Treaty ending WWI, 4,000 German troops occupy the Rhineland.

[1937.02.05] President Roosevelt proposes his "court packing" scheme.

[1937.02.11] After a 44-day occupation of General Motors factories, GM recognizes the United Automobile Workers.

[1937.03.18] A school fire in New London, Texas, kills 294.

[1937.03.29] The Supreme Court upholds a minimum wage law for women.

[1937.04.12] The Supreme Court upholds the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.

[1937.05.01] A Neutrality Act prohibits the export of arms and ammunition to belligerents.

[1937.05.24] The Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the Social Security Act.

[1937.12.12] Japanese planes sink the U.S. gunboat Panay in Chinese waters, killing two. The Japanese government apologizes and pays reparations.

[1938.05.26] The House of Representatives creates

[1938.09.29] Munich Pact: To avert war, Britain and France give in to Hitler's claim to the Sudetenland, the German-populated part of Czechoslovakia. Critics denounce the agreement as "appeasement."

[1939.04.09] Denied use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, contralto Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial before 75,000 people.

[1939.08.23] Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact. The two countries agree to divide Poland.

[1939.09] World War II begins following Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1.

[1940] U.S. population: 131,669,275.

[1940.04.09] Norway and Denmark fall to the Nazis.

[1940.05.10] (-29) Germany captures Holland, Belgium, and Luxemburg.

[1940.05.26] (-June 4) 338,000 Allied forces, mainly British, evacuate the continent at Dunkerque.

[1940.06.28] The Smith Act outlaws organizations advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government.

[1940.08] (-November) Battle of Britain. The Royal Air Force repels the Luftwaffe.

[1940.09.03] The U.S. provides Britain with 50 aging destroyers in exchange for 99-year leases on eight military bases in Newfoundland and the West Indies.

[1941] President Roosevelt freezes German, Italian, and Japanese assets and embargoes shipments of gasoline and scrap metal to Japan.

[1941.01.13] President Roosevelt calls on Congress to defend four essential freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

[1941.03.11] Lend-Lease. The U.S. provides Britain with arms and supplies.

[1941.04.11] The Office of Price Administration is established with power to set production priorities and prices and institute rationing.

[1941.06.22] Germany invades Russia in violation of the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact.

[1941.12.07] Japanese planes and submarines attack the American fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The surprise attacked heavily damaged or sank 19 ships and killed 3,457 soldiers, sailors, and civilians.

[1942.01.20] Wansee Conference. The Nazis plan the "final solution" to the Jewish problem.

[1942.02.19] President Roosevelt authorizes the internment of 112,000 Japanese-Americans living along the Pacific coast. Japanese-Americans in Hawaii were not interned. More than 17,000 Japanese-Americans served in the U.S. armed forces during the war.

[1942.04.10] The Bataan Death March begins. 10,000 U.S. and 45,000 Filipino prisoners of war are forced to march 120 miles to Pampanga Province. 5,200 Americans and thousands of Filipinos died during the forced march.

[1942.04.18] "30 Seconds Over Tokyo." Col. Jimmy Doolittle's carrier-based aircraft bomb Tokyo.

[1942.05.15] Gas rationing is put into effect, limiting drives to three gallons a week.

[1942.06.03] (-6) The Battle of Midway. U.S. aircraft repel a Japanese assault in the Central Pacific, sinking 17 Japanese ships and shooting down 250 airplanes.

[1942.07.25] British and American forces invade French North Africa.

[1942.11.28] A fire at Boston's Coconut Grove nightclub kills 491.

[1942.12.02] A research team led by physicist Enrico Fermi produces the first successful atomic chain reaction at the University of Chicago.

[1943.05.09] (-10) Some 250,000 German troops surrender in Tunisia, abandoning the last Nazi stronghold in Africa.

[1943.06.05] (-8) Zoot Suit Riots. Sailors in Los Angeles attack Mexican Americans.

[1943.06.10] The United States institutes a withholding tax.

[1943.06.20] An anti-black riot in Detroit results in the deaths of 25 blacks and nine whites.

[1943.07.10] 150,000 British, American, and Canadian forces land in Sicily, conquering the island in five weeks.

[1943.07.25] Benito Mussolini is forced to resign as head of Italy's government after 21 years of rule.

[1943.09] British and American forces advance into Italy.

[1944] Publishers introduce the "paperback" book.

[1944.06.06] D-Day. Over a 48-hour period, 156,000 Allied troops storm the beaches of Normandy in France, while 8000 Allied planes provide air cover.

[1944.06.22] President Roosevelt signs the GI Bill of Rights, providing educational and vocational benefits for returning veterans.

[1944.10.22] (-27) The Battle of Leyte Gulf. At the largest naval battle in history, 166 U.S. ships and 1280 planes destroy five Japanese aircraft carriers, four battleships, 14 cruisers, and 43 other ships, and destroy 7000 aircraft.

[1944.12.16] The last German counter offense of the war, the Battle of the Bulge, begins.

[1945.04.25] (-June 26) Representatives from 50 nations draft the United Nations charter in San Francisco.

[1945.04.30] Adolf Hitler commits suicide in an underground bunker in Berlin.

[1945.05.07] V-E Day. German forces surrender to the Allies. Germany is divided into four zones.

[1945.06.26] Delegates from 50 nations draft the United Nations Charter in San Francisco.

[1945.08.06] The Enola Gay, a B-29, drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On August 9, a second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.

[1945.09.02] Japan formally surrenders in a ceremony aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

[1945.11.20] The Nuremberg tribunal convenes to hear cases of 22 high-ranking Nazis charged with war crimes. Twelve were given the death sentence, three received life terms, four were given 10-20 year prison terms, and three were acquitted. A war crimes trial in Tokyo

[1946.03] Speaking in Fulton, Mo., Winston Churchill announces that "an iron curtain has descended across the Continent" of Europe.

[1947] Financier Bernard Baruch declares that "We are in the midst of a cold war."

[1947] 28-year-old Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American in baseball's major leagues.

[1947.03.22] President Truman orders loyalty investigations of all federal employees.

[1947.10.14] Air Force Captain Charles Yeager becomes the first pilot to exceed the speed of sound.

[1948.03.08] Congress authorizes the Marshall Plan.

[1948.05] The United States formally recognizes the state of Israel.

[1948.06.24] Berlin Blockade. After Joseph Stalin imposes a land blockade on West Berlin, President Truman mounts an airlift

[1949.04.04] The United States joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and pledges to resist aggression against member nations.

[1949.10.01] Mao Tse-tung proclaims the People's Republic of China. On December 8, China's Nationalist government flees to Taiwan.

[1949.10.21] Eleven U.S. Communist party leaders are sentenced to five years in prison and fined $10,000.

[1950] U.S. population: 150,697,361.

[1950] Sen. Joseph McCarthy (Rep. Wisc.) tells Wheeling, W. Va.'s Women's Republican Club: "I have here in my hand a list of 205...names that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist party and who nevertheless are still working and

[1950.05] A special Senate committee, chaired by Sen. Estes Kefauver, conducts televised hearings on organized crime.

[1950.06.25] The Korean War begins when North Korean forces cross the 38th parallel into South Korea. President Truman wins a UN mandate to drive communist forces from South Korea because the Soviet delegation is absent.

[1950.09.15] UN forces land behind enemy lines at Inchon, while other UN troops drive northward up the Korean peninsula.

[1950.09.23] The McCarran Internal Security Act requires Communist-front organizations to register with the Subversive Activities Control Board.

[1950.10.07] U.S. forces cross the 38th parallel into North Korea.

[1950.11.29] After UN forces approach the Yalu River, Chinese troops intervene,, pushing the U.S. and its allies out of North Korea.

[1951.02.26] The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution stipulates that no person may be elected president more than two times.

[1951.04.05] Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to death for their alleged role in passing U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.

[1951.04.11] President Truman dismisses Gen. Douglas MacArthur for publicly challenging the policies of his civilian superiors. MacArthur had advocated an invasion of China.

[1952.09.23] Checkers Speech. On nationwide television, Richard M. Nixon, the Republican vice presidential candidate, explains that an $18,000 private fund set up by wealthy backers was for "necessary political expenses" and "exposing communism." He added that he had

[1953.06.19] Julius and Ethel Rosenberg become the only American civilians executed for espionage.

[1953.07.27] An armistice formally ends the Korean War, which killed three million people and cost the U.S. 54,000 lives and $22 billion.

[1953.08.19] The CIA engineers a coup overthrowing Iran's Prime Minister Mohammed Mossaegh and placing the Shah in power.

[1954.03.01] Five members of Congress are shot on the floor of the House of Representatives by Puerto Rican nationalists.

[1954.04.22] The Army-McCarthy hearings begin. Sen. McCarthy had charged that the Secretary of the Army had interfered with his investigations of communists in the military. The Army counter charged that McCarthy had sought favors for an aide who was in the service. I

[1954.05.08] The French garrison at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam falls to insurgent forces, the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh.

[1954.05.17] In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court rules unanimously that segregated schools were unconstitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren writes: "We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Sepa

[1954.06.18] The CIA sponsors a coup in Guatemala overthrowing the government of Jacobo Arbenz, which had nationalized property owned by the United Fruit Company.

[1955] The United States provides $216 million in aid to South Vietnam.

[1955.08.28] Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American from Chicago, was kidnapped from his uncle's home in LeFlore County, Miss. His mutilated body was recovered four days later from the Tallahatchie River. Till had been accused of acting disrespectfully toward a w

[1955.12.01] Seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus to a white man, leading to a year-long black bus boycott.

[1955.12.05] The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge.

[1956.10] Soviet troops crush a revolt in Hungary.

[1956.10.30] Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula after Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal and excludes Israeli shipping. The next day, Britain and France begin to bomb Egypt.

[1957] The Senate's McClellan Committee investigates corrupt union practices. The committee's counsel was Robert F. Kennedy.

[1957.09.24] President Eisenhower sends a thousand army paratroopers to Little Rock, Arkansas's Central High School, to permit nine black children to enroll in the previously all-white school.

[1957.10.04] The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite.

[1959.01.01] Fidel Castro marches into Havana, having defeated the regime of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba.

[1960] U.S. population: 179,323,175.

[1960] U.S. scientists Charles H. Townes and Arthur L. Schawlow patent the laser.

[1960] The first retirement community opens in Sun City, Arizona, outside Phoenix.

[1960] A House subcommittee reports that 207 disk jockeys in 42 cities had received over $260,000 in payola to play records on the air.

[1960.02.01] The "sit-in" movement begins when four African American studies sit down at a Charlotte, N.C. Woolworth's to protest segregated lunch counters.

[1960.05.05] A U-2 spy plane with Francis Gary Powers at the controls is shot down over Sverdlovsk, Russia, aborting a scheduled summit meeting between Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and President Dwight Eisenhower.

[1960.05.09] The Food and Drug Administration approves the birth control pill. By 1962, 1.2 million American women were taking it.

[1960.06.30] Belgium grants independence to the Congo.

[1960.09.26] (-10.17) Presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon face off in four televised debates.

[1961.01] In his farewell address, President Eisenhower warns: "In the council of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of mi

[1961.03.01] President John Kennedy creates the Peace Corps. By September, over 1000 volunteers are providing assistance in underdeveloped countries.

[1961.04.12] Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to orbit the earth.

[1961.04.17] 1500 Cuban refugees, trained at a secret CIA base in Guatemala, land at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The attempt to topple the regime of Castro regime is a failure. On Christmas, 1962, Castro exchanged 1,113 captured invaders and 922 of their relatives for $5

[1961.05] FCC Commission Chairman Newton Minow calls television "a vast wasteland."

[1961.05.04] The "Freedom Riders" leave Washington, D.C. to desegregate public transportation facilities in the South.

[1961.05.05] The U.S. launches its first astronaut, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Alan Shepard, Jr., into space.

[1961.08.13] East German troops install barricades in Berlin to stem the flow of East Germans to the West. Four days later, East Germany begins to erect the concrete Berlin Wall.

[1961.12.11] The first two U.S. military companies arrive in South Vietnam. In October, President Kennedy had written: "The United States is determined to help Vietnam preserve its independence, protect its people against communist assassins and build a better life."

[1962] Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring, which documents that damaged caused by pesticides.

[1962.06.25] The Supreme Court declares the use of a non-denominational prayer in New York State schools violates the Constitutional separation of church and state.

[1962.10] (-November) The Cuban Missile Crisis. The U.S. and U.S.S.R. come close to nuclear war when the U.S. learns that the Soviet Union is installing offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba. The crisis ended when Moscow dismantles the launch sites in exchange for Pres

[1962.10.01] James Meredith becomes the first African American student at the University of Mississippi. An ensuing riots leaves two dead and 375 injured.

[1962.10.13] Pope John XXIII convenes the Second Vatican Council to break down barriers separating Christians of different denominations and overhaul the Catholic Church's structure.

[1963] The U.S. and U.S.S.R. sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and install a "hot line" to speed communications between the White House and the Kremlin.

[1963.01.14] At his inauguration, Alabama Gov. George Wallaces states: "I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

[1963.08.05] The U.S., the Soviet Union, and Britain sign a treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater.

[1963.08.28] 200,000 civil rights demonstrators in Washington, marching in support of the Civil Rights Act, hear the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech.

[1963.09.15] A black church is Birmingham, Ala. is bombed, killing four girls.

[1963.11.01] South Vietnamese President Diem is killed in a military coup.

[1963.11.22] President John Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Two days later, his alleged assassin was shot to death in a Dallas jail.

[1964.01.23] The 24th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits a poll tax in federal elections.

[1964.02.17] The Supreme Court rules that congressional districts had to be approted according to the principle of "one man, one vote."

[1964.07.02] President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, integrating public accommodations and prohibiting job discrimination.

[1964.08.02] The U.S. announces that North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked a U.S. destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin in international waters, 30 miles off the North Vietnamese coast. By a vote of 502-2, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing the p

[1964.09.27] The commission established by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy concludes that he died at the hands of a single assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.

[1965] Ralph Nader publishes Unsafe at Any Speed, which calls for auto safety regulations.

[1965.02.07] (-8) The United States bombs North Vietnam in retaliation for a National Liberation Front attack on U.S. troops in South Vietnam.

[1965.02.21] Followers of Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad shoot black nationalist leader Malcolm X as he prepares to deliver a speech in a Manhattan ballroom.

[1965.03.07] Alabama state police attack voting rights demonstrators with clubs and gas as they prepare to march from Selma for the capital of Montgomery.

[1965.08.11] (-16) Arson and looting erupt in the Watts district of Los Angeles, resulting in 34 deaths and 3,900 arrests.

[1965.11.09] (-10) A power blackout affects over 30 million people from Pennsylvania to southern Canada.

[1967] The Summer of Love in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district.

[1967.04.28] Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is arrested for refusing induction after being denied conscientious objector status. Boxing officials strip him of his title.

[1967.06.05] A Chicano group led by Reis Tijerina seizes a county courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, N. Mex., to dramatize their claim to lands granted their ancestors by Spain.

[1967.06.05] (-11) Israel defeats Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and the United Arab Republic in the "Six-Day War," resulting in Israeli occupation of territories five times the country's pre-war size.

[1967.07.12] (-17) A riot in Newark, N.J., leaves 26 dead and over 1,500 injured.

[1967.07.23] (-30) A riot in Detroit, sparked by a police raid on an after hours club, leaves 43 dead and over 2000 injured.

[1967.10.02] Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African American Supreme Court justice.

[1968.01.23] North Korean gunboats capture the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo.

[1968.01.30] The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launch the Tet Offensive against major cities in South Vietnam, shattering faith that the United States was on the verge of military victory.

[1968.03.16] My Lai Massacre.

[1968.03.31] President Johnson announces that he will not seek reelection and orders a halt to most U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.

[1968.04.04] The Rev. Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., where he is supporting a sanitation workers' strike.

[1968.04.23] (-24) Students at New York's Columbia University seize five buildings to protest the university's ties to the military and its plan to build a gymnasium in a nearby ghetto area.

[1968.06.05] Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated after delivering his victory speech in the California primary.

[1968.08.20] (-21) Soviet tanks suppress the liberal reforms in Czechoslovakia.

[1968.08.25] (-29) Police club demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

[1969.07.20] Astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the moon. His first words from the lunar surface were: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind."

[1969.08.16] Half a million gather at a rock concert near Woodstock, New York.

[1969.11.16] The first reports of the My Lai massacre are published.

[1969.11.20] 89 American Indian activists occupy Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay to dramatize the plight of Native Americans.

[1970] U.S. population: 203,211,926.

[1970.04.30] American troops begin an incursion into Cambodia.

[1970.05.04] National Guard troops kill four students at Kent State University in Ohio during protests against the Cambodia invasion.

[1970.05.14] Two black students at Jackson State University in Mississippi are killed by police firing on a dormitory.

[1971.06.13] The New York Times prints the first installment of the Pentagon Papers, a classified history of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The U.S. Justice Department sued to suppress publication of the documents on grounds of national security.

[1971.06.30] The 26th Amendment gives 18 year olds the right to vote.

[1971.09.03] The Plumbers, a secret investigative unit set up by the Nixon White House, burglarizes the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsburg, in order to find discredit the man who released the Pentagon Papers.

[1971.09.09] Inmates take over New York State's Attica Prison. On September 13, state troopers, sheriff's deputies, and prison guards stormed the penitentiary

[1971.10.25] President Nixon announces he will visit China.

[1972.05.15] Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace is shot in Laurel, Md.

[1972.06.17] Five burglars are caught installing eavesdropping equipment in the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.

[1972.09.05] At the Olympic Games in Munich, eight armed Palestinian guerrillas storm the Israeli athletes dormitory, killing one Israeli athlete and taking nine hostages. During a shoot-out, the nine Israeli hostages were killed and five of the eight Palestinians.

[1972.12.18] The Christmas Bombing. President Nixon orders the bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong, apparently in order to obtain the acquiescence to a peace agreement by President Thieu of South Vietnam.

[1973.01.28] The United States and North Vietnam sign a treaty ending direct American intervention in Vietnam.

[1973.02.27] The American Indian movement occupies a trading post and church in Wounded Knee, S.D., the site of the 1890 massacre of the Sioux, to draw attention to the grievances of Native Americans.

[1973.03.19] Watergate burglary defendant James McCord informs the judge in the case that perjury had been committed in the trial and that Administration officials had pressured defendants to maintain silence and plead guilty.

[1973.03.21] President Nixon orders the payment of $75,000 in hush money to defendant E. Howard Hunt. The next day, Nixon told an aide, "I want you all to stonewall it, let them plead the 5th Amendment, cover-up or anything else, if it'll save itsave the plan...."

[1973.05.17] A Senate committee opens hearings on the Watergate Affair.

[1973.07.16] A former White House aide reveals to Senate Watergate investigators that President Nixon maintained a secret tape-recording system in the White House.

[1973.09.11] Chilean President Salvador Allende is killed in a military coup. A junta led by Gen. Augusto Pinoche takes over.

[1973.10.10] Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns and pleads no contest to a charge of tax evasion. Agnew had received kickbacks and bribes over a ten-year period while serving as governor and county executive in Maryland. House Republic leader Gerald Ford replaced Agne

[1973.10.17] Arab countries impose an oil embargo against the U.S. to raise oil prices and retaliate for U.S. support for Israel.

[1973.10.20] The Saturday Night Massacre. President Nixon orders his Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Rechildson refuses and resigns. Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus also refuses and is fire.

[1974.02] Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn is expelled from the Soviet Union

[1974.07.24] A unanimous Supreme Court orders President Nixon to release 64 tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor, ruling that he may not withhold evidence from a criminal case.

[1974.07.27] The House Judiciary Committee votes 27-11 to recommend President Nixon's impeachment.

[1974.08.08] Richard Nixon becomes the first president to resign his office. Gerald Ford becomes the 38th president, declaring "Our long national nightmare is over."

[1974.09.08] President Ford pardons Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed as president. The pardon contributes to Ford's defeat in the 1976 presidential election.

[1975] Portugal grants independence to Angola and Mozambique.

[1975.04.30] The Vietnam War ends when North Vietnamese troops occupy Saigon and rename it Ho Chi Minh City.

[1975.05.12] Cambodia seizes a U.S. merchant ship, the Mayaguez and its 39-member crew in the Gulf of Siam. U.S. troops recover the ship and crew, but suffer 38 dead.

[1977.01.17] The United States ends a ten year moratorium on capital punishment, when Utah executed convicted murderer Gary Gilmore.

[1977.06] Spain holds its first free elections since the Spanish Civil War ended 41 years before.

[1977.11.19] Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt becomes the first Arab leader to visit Israel since the nation's founding in 1948.

[1978.09] President Jimmy Carter mediates Egyptian-Israeli peace settlement

[1978.10.16] Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) is the first non Italian pope elected in 456 years

[1978.12] Iranian revolution begins

[1979.01.01] United States formally recognizes China

[1979.01.16] The Shah of Iran leaves his country and goes into exile, ending his 37 year rule

[1979.02.01] The Ayatollah Khomeini returns from a 15 year exile and takes power in Iran

[1979.03.26] Egypt and Israel sign a peace agreement

[1979.03.28] America’s worst nuclear accident takes place at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

[1979.07.19] Somoza regime in Nicaragua is overthrown

[1979.11.04] Iranian militants seize American hostages

[1979.12.27] Soviet Union invades Afghanistan

[1980.11.04] Ronald Reagan is elected fortieth president

[1981] IBM releases its first personal computer

[1981.01.20] American hostages are released from Iran

[1981.03.30] President Reagan is shot in assassination attempt

[1981.05.13] Pope John Paul II is shot at and nearly killed in St. Peter’s Square in Rome

[1981.06.05] Doctors diagnose the first cases of AIDS

[1981.07.29] Regan tax cuts are approved

[1981.08.05] President Ronald Reagan decertifies the air traffic controllers union

[1981.09.25] Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn in as the first female Supreme Court justice

[1982] Congress deregulates banking industry and lifts controls on airfares

[1982.01.01] CNN, the cable news network, is launched

[1982.03.19] Argentine forces land on the Falkland islands, touching off the Falklands War with Britain

[1982.11.13] Vietnam Veterans Memorial, designed by Maya Lin, opens in Washington, D.C.

[1982.11.29] The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan Equal Rights Amendment fails to achieve ratification

[1982.12] Congress enacts the Boland Amendment, which bars the use of Federal money to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government

[1983.01.01] The word Internet is first used

[1983.03.23] Regan proposes “Star Wars” missile defense system

[1983.09.01] Korean Air Flight KAL-007, a commercial airliner, is shot down by a Soviet jet fighter, killing 269

[1983.10.25] United States topples Communist government on the Caribbean island of Grenada

[1984] Congress orders an end to all covert aid to Nicaraguan contras

[1984.01.01] AT&T, the telephone utility, breaks up into 22 independent units

[1984.11.06] Ronald Reagan is reelected

[1985.03.11] Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union

[1985.07] United States begins secret arms-for-hostages negotiations with Iran

[1986.01.28] Space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after takeoff, killing all aboard

[1986.04.26] A Soviet reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Ukraine explodes

[1986.11.25] Reagan administration announces that profits from Iranian arms sales were diverted to Nicaraguan contras

[1987.06.12] President Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall

[1987.10.19] Stock market plunges 508 points in a single session, the worst decline in Wall Street history

[1987.11.18] A Congressional report states that US President Ronald Wilson Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides in the Iran-Contra Affair

[1988] Al-Qaeda founded by Osama bin Laden

[1988.11.08] George Bush is elected forty-first president

[1988.12.21] Libyan agents blow up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259

[1989.02.15] Soviet forces complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan

[1989.03.24] The Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound

[1989.05.30] Pro-democracy demonstrators erect a 33-foot "Goddess of Democracy" statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China

[1989.06.04] Pro-democracy demonstration in Tiananmen Square are crushed

[1989.10.18] The regime of Erich Honenecker, Communist leader of East Germany, falls

[1989.11.10] Berliners begin to tear down the Berlin Wall

[1989.12.20] The United States invades Panama and ousts strongman General Manuel Noriega

[1990.02.26] The Sandinistas are defeated in elections in Nicaragua

[1990.08.02] Iraqi troops invade and occupy Kuwait

[1990.10.03] Germany is reunited

[1991.01] (.-February) U.S., Western, and Arab forces eject Iraq from Kuwait by force

[1991.02.26] Tim Berners-Lee introduces the first web browser

[1991.03.03] Los Angeles police are videotaped beating motorist Rodney King during an arrest

[1991.08.18] Soviet hardliners place President Mikhail Gorbachev under house arrest. The coup’s failure results in a shift in power to the Soviet Republics

[1991.12.31] Soviet Union is dissolved

[1992.01.15] Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence

[1992.04.29] Riots erupt in Los Angeles following acquittal of police officers in the beating of motorist Rodney King

[1992.11.03] Democrat Bill Clinton is elected forty-second president

[1993] Congress passes North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), eliminating trade barriers between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico

[1993.02.26] Terrorists bomb World Trade Center in New York City, killing 6

[1993.11.01] The Maastricht Treaty creates the European Union

[1993.12.07] Toni Morrison receives the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first African American to do so

[1994] Congress defeats President Bill Clinton's health care plan

[1994.01.01] The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect

[1994.04.07] Massacres of Tutsis begin in Rwanda

[1994.05.10] Nelson Mandela is sworn in as president of post-apartheid South Africa

[1994.11.08] Republicans win control of both the House and Senate in the 1994 mid-term elections

[1995.04.19] Bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The blast killed 167 men, women, and children and injured 853 others (Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, May 31, 1998).

[1995.10.04] Football star 0. J. Simpson is found not guilty of murder in deaths of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman

[1995.11.04] Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli opponent of the peace process

[1996.07.05] Dolly the sheep is the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell

[1996.11.05] Bill Clinton is reelected president

[1998.08.07] Bombings at U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar el Islam, Tanzania kill 224 people

[1998.11.05] The journal Nature reports that genetic testing indicates that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings’s son Eston Hemings Jefferson

[1998.12.19] The House of Representatives approves two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice in the Monica Lewinsky affair

[1999] World population reaches six billion

[1999.02.12] President Clinton is acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial

[1999.03.24] NATO launches a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia

[1999.04.20] In Littleton, Colorado, two high school students murder 12 students and one teacher before committing suicide

[1999.12.31] The United States transfers control of Panama Canal to Panama

[2000.06] Researchers decode the human genome

[2000.12.12] A 5-to-4 Supreme Court ruling ends efforts to recount the votes in the presidential election in Florida. As a result, Republican candidate George W. Bush becomes the forty-third president, receiving a majority of the electoral votes despite losing the pop

[2001.09.11] Terrorist attacks kills thousands of civilians and destroy the World Trade Center towers in New York City and part of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The United States retaliates for the September 11 attacks by overthrowing Afghanistan’s Taliban governme

[2001.10.04] The first of 22 cases of anthrax infection is detected in the United States