Updated Timeline for 2011-12 School Year

Important Dates

1607 – Jamestown Settlement
1620 – Pilgrims' arrival & Mayflower Compact
1776 – Declaration of Independence
1787 – U.S. Constitution
1803 – Louisiana Purchase
1861-1865 – Civil War

Timeline

Era of European Exploration

1215 – Magna Carta
1265 – English Parliament
1492 – Columbus sails to New World

Era of Colonial Settlement

1607 – Jamestown Settlement
1619 – Virginia House of Burgesses
1619 – First Africans arrive in America
1620 – Mayflower Compact
1639 – Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
1689 – English Bill of Rights
1720 – First Great Awakening
1754 – Albany Plan of Union
1754 – French and Indian War
1763 – Treaty of Paris
1763 – Proclamation of 1763

American Revolutionary Era

1764 – Sugar Act
1765 – Stamp Act
1766 – Stamp Act Repealed
1766 – Declaratory Acts
1767 – Townshend Acts
1770 – Boston Massacre
1773 – Tea Act
1773 – Boston Tea Party
1774 – Coercive Acts
1774 – First Continental Congress
1775 – Lexington and Concord
1775 – Second Continental Congress
1776 – Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
1776 – Declaration of Independence
1777 – Articles of Confederation
1777 – Saratoga
1778 – Valley Forge
1781 – Yorktown
1783 – Treaty of Paris

New Republic Era

1787 – Northwest Ordinance
1787 – Philadelphia Convention
1787 – Three-fifths Compromise
1787 – U.S. Constitution
1789 – First U.S. President (George Washington)
1789 – Origin of Political Parties
1791 – Bill of Rights
1791 – First Bank of the U.S.
1793 – Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin
1796 – Washington’s Farewell Address
1798 – Alien and Sedition Act
1798 – XYZ Affair
1800 – Industrial Revolution and Free Enterprise
1801 – Interchangeable Parts
1803 – Marbury v. Madison
1803 – Second Great Awakening

Era of Westward Expansion

1803 – Louisiana Purchase
1809 – James Madison
1812 – War of 1812
1815 – Battle of New Orleans
1816 – Second Bank of U.S.
1817 – Reform Movement: Disabilities
1819 – McCulloch v. Maryland
1820 – Missouri Compromise
1823 – Monroe Doctrine
1824 – Gibbons v. Ogden
1826 – Reform Movement: Temperance
1828 – Election of Andrew Jackson
1828 – Rise of Modern Democrats
1830 – Indian Removal Act
1832 – Nullification Crisis
1832 – Jackson challenges Second Bank of U.S.
1832 – Worcester v. Georgia
1837 – Reform Movement: Education
1838 – Trail of Tears
1840 – Oregon Country
1841 – Reform Movement: Prisons
1845 – Texas is annexed as the 28th state
1846 – Mexican-American War
1848 – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
1848 – California Gold Rush
1848 – Mormons in Utah
1848 – Seneca Falls Convention

Civil War/Reconstruction Era

1850 – Compromise of 1850
1850 – Fugitive Slave Act
1852 – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
1854 – Kansas-Nebraska Act
1854 – Bleeding Kansas
1857 – Dred Scott v. Sandford
1859 – Raid on Harper’s Ferry
1861 – Lincoln’s Inaugural Address
1861 – Davis’ Inaugural Address
1861 – Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, SC
1861 – First Battle of Bull Run
1862 – Battle Hymn of the Republic
1862 – Homestead Act
1862 – Morrill Act
1862 – Battle of Antietam
1863 – Emancipation Proclamation
1863 – Battle of Gettysburg
1863 – Battle of Vicksburg
1863 – Gettysburg Address
1865 – Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
1865 – Lee surrenders at Appomattox
1865 – President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated
1865 – 13th Amendment
1867 – 14th Amendment
1870 – 15th Amendment
1886 – Statue of Liberty
1887 – Dawes Act