1775- 1775 Battles of
Lexington and Concord. George
Washington
is appointed to Commander-in-Chief of the
Continental Army. King George III
officially declares a state of open
rebellion in the American
colonies 1776 The United States
declares its Independence from Britain.
Declaration
of Independence
signed .. Thomas
Paine
(1737-1809): Common
Sense 1778 France declares war
on Britain over America. 1779 Spain declares war
on Britain. 1780 Britain declares
war on Holland. 1781 Lord Cornwallis
surrenders to General Washington. 1783 The
Treaty
of Versailles
officially ends the American Revolution
and the United States (Indiana, Illinois,
Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee,
Wisconsin, and parts of Alabama, Georgia,
Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia)
is recognized as a sovereign
nation. 1784 Father
Junipero
Serra dies,
having founded the missions of San Diego,
San Carlos de Monterey (Carmel), San
Antonio de Padua, San Gabriel, San Luis
Obispo, San Francisco (Dolores), San Juan
Capistrano, Santa Clara, San Buena
Ventura. 1785 1787 Association
for the Abolition of the Slave
Trade
founded. . Jupiter
Hammon
(1711-1800): An
Address to the Negroes of the State of New
York 1789 George
Washington
elected as president of the United
States. 1. 1789 French
Revolution.
Declaration of the Rights
of Man.
(Déclaration
des droits de l'homme). .. Oladuah Equiano
(1745-97): The
Life of Gustavus Vassa 1790 Benjamin
Franklin
dies. 1791 The
Bill
of Rights
(the first ten amendments) is
ratified. .. Thomas
Paine
(1737-1809):
Rights of
Man 1793 2. 1797 John Adams is sworn
in as the 2nd President of the United
States 1800 Washington, D.C.
becomes the official capital of the United
States. . Library
of Congress
founded. 3. 1803 The United States
purchases the Louisiana Territory
(Arkansas, part of Colorado, Iowa,
Louisiana, part of Minnesota, Missouri,
part of Montana, part of North Dakota,
part of Oklahoma, South Dakota, and part
of Wyoming) from Napoleon for $15
million. 1804 Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark start their
expedition
from St. Louis to the Pacific
Ocean. 1807 Abolition
of the slave trade
in Great Britain. 1808 Congress prohibits
the import of African slaves. 1809 Diedrich
Knickerbocker aka Washington
Irving
(1783-1859): History of New
York 4. 1812 Louisiana is the
18th state admitted to the Union. 1814 Treaty
of Paris.
Napoleon abdicates. . George Stephenson
builds his first steam
locomotive.
1815 Napoleon defeated
at Waterloo.
Congress
of Vienna. 1817 5. 1820 Washington
Irving
(1783-1859): Sketch Book
(Rip
van Winkle) 1821 Mexicans rebel
against Spanish rule. 1823 President James
Monroe proclaims the "Monroe
Doctrine"
against European intervention in the
Americas. . J.
F. Cooper
(1789-1851): The
Pioneers 1824 The Bureau of
Indian Affairs regulates trade with Indian
tribes. 6. 1825 Completion of the
Erie Canal linking the Great Lakes with
New York City 1826 First American
railroad completed in Quincy,
Massachusetts . J.
F. Cooper
(1789-1851): The Last of the
Mohicans 1828 The Democratic
Party, an extension of Jefferson's
Democratic-Republican party, is
formed. . Noah
Webster
publishes Original
American Dictionary of the English
Language 7. 1830 Indian Removal Act
moves eastern Indians west of Mississippi.
. Joseph
Smith:
Book of Mormon 1831 Joseph Smith leads
his followers to Kirtland, Ohio, where
they can build a new Zion 1833 Abolition
of Slavery
in Great Britain. . Swiss painter
Karl
Bodmer
(paintings)
and Prince Maximilian
zu Wied
travel up the Missouri to observe and
record Indian life. 1834 Slavery abolished
in British Empire . Ralph
Waldo Emerson
moves to Concorde.
(Transcendentalism) 1835 The Cherokee give
up their lands in Georgia for territory in
present-day Oklahoma. 1836 Ralph
Waldo Emerson
(1803-82): Nature 8.
Martin
Van Buren 1837 Ralph
Waldo Emerson
(1803-82): Concord
Hymn 1838 Edgar
Allen Poe
(1809-1849): The
Narrative of Arthur Gordon
Pym 1840 Edgar
Allen Poe
(1809-1849): Tales
of the Grotesque and
Arabesque 9. 1841 John
Sutter
establishes Fort Sutter at the junction of
the Sacramento and American
Rivers. . J.
F. Cooper
(1789-1851): The
Deerslayer 1842 Seminoles moved to
Indian Territory 1843 Margaret
Fuller
(1810-50): The Great Lawsuit: Man
versus Men, Woman versus
Women 1844 The United States
annexes parts of Colorado, New Mexico,
Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas as a result of
the Adams-Onis
Treaty with
Spain. . Payne Collier's
edition
of Shakespeare's works 1845 Texas is the 28th
state admitted to the Union . Edgar
Allen Poe
(1809-1849): Tales,
The
Raven and other
Poems 11. 1846 The
Mexican
War begins
with the Battle of Palo Alto. The US
annexes what is now Arizona and New
Mexico. 1846 US forces take
Mexico City. 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War (Rio
Grande River as the boundary between Texas
and Mexico). 12. 1850 California is the
31st state admitted to the
Union. . Ralph
Waldo Emerson
(1803-82): Representative
Men 1851 Sioux give all land
in Iowa to US 1851 Herman
Melville
(1819-91): Moby
Dick; or, The
Whale, 1852 Harriet
Beecher-Stowe
(1811-96): Uncle
Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the
Lowly 14. 1853 Levi Strauss begins
manufacturing heavyweight trousers for
gold miners. 1854 Smith and Wesson
invent revolver. . Henry
David Thoreau
(1817-62): Walden 1855 Printing telegraph
invented . Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow (1807-82): The
Song of
Hiawatha 15. 1858 Abraham
Lincoln
warns that slavery would divide the
nation:
A House Divided 1859 Discovery of silver
in Nevada (Comstock
Lode) ends
the California Gold Rush . Charles Darwin:
On
the Origin of Species. 1860 Lincoln's
speech
at New Haven. Secession 16. 1860 South Carolina is
the 1st state to secede from the
Union. 1861 Mississippi is the
2nd state to secede from the Union. 1862 Union forces win
the Battle of Shiloh and of Antietam.
Confederate forces win the Battle of
Fredericksburg and of
Chancellorsville. 1863 Emancipation
Proclamation. Union forces win the Battle
Ghettysburg. Gettysburg
Address 1864 Union forces begin
the "March to the sea", from Atlanta to
Savanah. 1865 The fleeing
Confederate government sets fire to
Richmond. Mark Twain
(1835-1910): The
Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County 17. 1866 Jesse
and Frank James
launch their legendary criminal career
with a bank robbery at Liberty,
Missouri. 1867 U.S. purchases the
Alaska Territory from Russia for $7.2
million. 1868 President Andrew
Johnson is impeached by the House of
Representatives. The Senate acquits
Johnson of all 11 Articles of Impeachment.
President Andrew Johnson issues an
unconditional pardon to all those who
participated in the southern
rebellion. 18. 1869 The
Suez
Canal opens
for business in Egypt, linking the
Mediterranean and Red seas. . Mark Twain
(1835-1910): Innocents
Abroad 1870 15th amendment to
Constitution prohibits states from denying
the right to vote because of
race 1871 Indian
Appropriations Act ends the practice of
treating Indian tribes as sovereign
nations 1872 Yellowstone
National Park opens as first National
Park. 1873 Cable cars are
introduced in San Francisco. Levi Strauss
and Jacob Davis: Blue
Jeans
patented. 1876 Sioux and Cheyenne
led by Chief Sitting Bull defeat General
Custer in the battle of the
Little
Bighorn,
Montana 1877 Edison
invents phonograph . Henry
James
(1843-1916): The
American 19. 1879 Thomas
Alva Edison
invents incandescent light bulb . Henry
James
(1843-1916): Daisy
Miller 1881 Billy
the Kid,
charged with more than 21 murders in a
brief lifetime of crime, is shot by
Sheriff Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner, New
Mexico. . Henry
James
(1843-1916): The Portrait of a
Lady 20. 21. 1881 James Garfield shot
in a Washington railroad
station. 1882 Immigration law
excluding paupers, criminals, and
lunatics. Congress suspends Chinese
immigration. 1883 "Buffalo
Bill" Cody
stages his first Wild West Show at the
Omaha fairgrounds 1884 Journalist Charles
Dow provides an index
based on 11 stocks, most of them
railroads. as a window for outsiders to
view the market . Mark Twain
(1835-1910): Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn 1885 Chicago's Home Life
Insurance Building is the first
skyscraper. . Walt Whitman
(1819-1892): Song
of Myself 22. 1886 Geronimo surrenders
to General Nelson A. Miles in Skeleton
Canyon, Arizona, after more than a decade
of guerilla warfare against American and
Mexican settlers in the Southwest. The
terms of surrender require Geronimo and
his tribe to settle in Florida, where the
Army hopes he can be contained.
(Geronimo's
autobiography) . Emily
Dickinson
(1830-86) dies. 1888 First
Kodak
camera . Music: 1889 Wovoka,
a Paiute holy man, teaches his tribe the
Ghost Dance, to restore the earth to the
way it was before the whites arrived in
the West. His teachings lead to a
spiritual revival. 23. 1890 Chief
Sitting
Bull is
murdered by Lakota policemen. 1891 Edison's
assistant, Dickson, builds the Kinetograph
motion picture camera. The first
international phone call via submarine
cable, London - Paris. 1892 The
Dalton
Gang's last raid. . Charlotte Perkins
Gilman (1860-1935): "The
Yellow Wallpaper" 24. 1893 Coca
Cola is
registered as a trademark by John Styth
Pemberton, a pharmacist in Atlanta. 1894 Edison
opens a Kinetoscope movie parlor in New
York 1895 Water of the
Niagara Falls is diverted through
high-speed turbines to produce
electrical
power. 1897 General Electric
creates a publicity department. .. Music: 25. (1897-1901) 1898 U.S.
declares war on
Spain.
Battle of Manila Bay: U.S.
annexes
Hawaii,
American forces invade Puerto Rico. Treaty
of Paris ends the Spanish-American
War. 1899 U.S. annexes Guam,
the Phillipines,
and Puerto
Rico. . Kate
Chopin
(1851-1904): The
Awakening 1900 Theodore Dreiser
(1871-1945): Sister
Carrie 1901 Great Britain:
Queen Victoria dies. American History:
American
Revolution
War
of Independence
1776 - 82
Literature:
Reason and Revolution
George
III
1760-1820
1783
Adam Smith: The
Wealth of Nations
James Cook discovers Hawaii
(the Sandwich Islands)
Treaty
with the Delawares.
(Other treaties
with Native
Americans)
John
Hanson is
elected president of the United States by
the Continental Congress. (Followed by
Elias Boudinot, 1783; Thomas Mifflin,
1784; Richard Henry Lee, 1785; Nathan
Gorman, 1786; Arthur St. Clair, 1787; and
Cyrus Griffin, 1788) (Who
was the first
president?)
Russia establishes its first North
American colony on Kodiak
Island.
George Washington presides the convention
in Philadelphia.(Congress
Resolutions)
(Constitution)
George
Washington
Federalist,
(1789-97)
Judith Sargent Murray's On
the Equality of the
Sexes
Philip
Freneau
(1752-1832): National
Gazette
John
Adams
Federalist,
(1797-1801)
Thomas
Jefferson
Dem.-Rep.,
(1801-09)
James
Madison
Dem.-Rep.,
(1809-17)
U.S. declares war on Britain (Mr Madison's
War)
The British set fire to Washington, D.C.
The "Star-Spangled Banner" becomes the
official national Anthem.
The Treaty of Ghent ends the War between
U.S. and Britain of 1812.
James
Monroe
Dem.-Rep.,
(1817-25)
John
Quincy Adams
Dem.-Rep.,
(1825-29)
Andrew
Jackson
Democrat,
(1829-37)
Transcendentalism
Samuel Colt develops his
revolver.
The Florida Seminoles reject forced
removal to the West under Chief Osceola
(Second
Seminole War).
Texas War for Independence.
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
born.
Nathaniel
Hawthorne
(1804-1864): Young Goodman Brown
J.
F. Cooper
(1789-1851): Gleanings
in Europe: Switzerland
Democrat,
(1837-41)
William
Henry Harrison
Whig,
(1841)
10.
John
Tyler
(1841-45)
Philharmonic Society of New York
founded
Margaret
Fuller
(1810-50): Woman
in the Nineteenth
Century
James
K. Polk
Democrat,
(1845-49)
James
Marshall
discovers gold at Sutter's
sawmill:
Calfornian Gold Rush (1848-1859)
The first ten miles of the Galena and
Chicago Union Railroad are completed, a
direct predecessor of the Chicago &
North Western.
Zachary
Taylor
Whig,
(1849-50)
13.
Millard
Fillmore
Whig,
(1850-53)
Nathaniel
Hawthorne
(1804-64): The Scarlet
Letter
1st World Exhibition in Crystal
Palace,
London.
Sojourner
Truth:
"Ain't I A Woman"
Franklin
Pierce
Democrat,
(1853-57)
Walt Whitman (1819-1892): Leaves
of Grass
James
Buchanan
Democrat,
(1857-61)
John
Brown is
hanged for his attempt to organize a slave
uprising at Harper's Ferry,
Virginia.
Abraham
Lincoln
Republican,
(1861-65)
The Apache declare war on the United
States. Jefferson
Davis is
sworn in as the 1st President of the
Confederate
States of
America (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia,
Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee).
Abraham Lincoln: Special
Session Message.
Battle of Bull Run.
President Abraham Lincoln signs
the
Pacific Railway Act,
which directs two companies, the Union
Pacific and the Central Pacific, to
construct a transcontinental
railroad.
Union forces win the Battle of
Chattanooga.
Chivington
Massacre,
Sand Creek: The fighting parson John M.
Chivington's troop massacres nearly two
hundred men, women and children in a
Cheyenne encampment.
April 14th: Abraham Lincoln assassinated
by the actor John
Wilkes Booth.
May 4th: The Confederate States of America
surrender
at Appomattox,
ending the Civil War.
(Robert E. Lee: Farewell
to his Army)
The 13th amendment to Constitution
abolishes slavery
The Union
Pacific Railroad
begins moving westward, laying track at an
average rate of one mile per day.
International Telegraph Union is founded
in Paris.
Andrew
Johnson
Republican,
(1865-69)
The first branch of the
Ku Klux Klan
established in Pulaski,
Tennessee
The United States and the Comanche, Kiowa,
Cheyenne, Arapaho tribes sign the
Medicine
Lodge Treaty,
intended to remove Indians from the path
of white settlement.
George Westinghouse patents the air brake.
Alfred Nobel patents dynamite.
14th amendment to Constitution grants
citizenship to former slaves
Ulysses
S. Grant
Republican,
(1869-77)
Rutherford
B. Hayes
Republican,
(1877-81)
Tombstone, Arizona, Deputy Marshall
Wyatt
Earp and
his brothers gun down the Clantons at the
O.K. Corral.
James
Garfield
Republican,
(1881)
Chester
Arthur
Republican,
(1881-85)
Jesse
James is
shot in the back by Robert Ford, a kinsman
who hoped to collect a $5,000 reward.
Edison installs the first
electrical power
station in
Pearl Street, New York.
Completion
of railroads:
The Southern
Pacific,
The Santa
Fe, and the
Northern Pacific Railroad, connecting the
northwestern states to points east.
Metropolitan
Opera in
New York opens.
Grover
Cleveland
Democrat,
(1885-89)
Dow
Jones Index
is launched by Charles Dow at 40.94
points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
then had only 12 stocks, not 30
Charles
Yves
(1874-1954): "Variations on
America"
Benjamin
Harrison
Republican,
(1889-93)
Wounded
Knee:
Federal troops massacre the Lakota Chief
Big Foot and his 350 followers at Wounded
Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation
in a confrontation fueled by the
government's determination to stop the
Ghost Dance among the tribes.
Carnegie Hall opens in New
York.
Grover
Cleveland
Democrat,
(1893-97)
First electrified railway:
Baltimore
William Roentgen discovers X-rays. Dial
telephones go into Milwaukee's city
hall
John
Philip Sousa
(1854-1932): Stars and Stripes
Forever
William
McKinley
Republican,
United
Fruit
Company founded.
L. Frank Baum: The
Wizard of Oz
World
Fair in
Paris
U.S. President William McKinley is
assassinated by a mentally ill
anarchist.
Theodore
Roosevelt
26th President of the U.S.
Congress confers U.S. citizenship on all
Native Americans residing in the Oklahoma
Territory.
Colonial
America
1789
- 1901
1901
- 2003
Timeline:
History of Great
Britain
