USA History Timeline.

[Faryal Shah]

USA History

1492 - Christopher Columbus re-discovers America
Early Recorded History (1497 - 1619)
Growth Continues (1620-1735)
The Early Frontier (1736-1764)
Seeds of Rebellion (1765-1774)
The Revolution (1775-1783)
Becoming a Nation (1784-1815)
Expansion and Controversy (1816-1860)
Times of Great Travail (1861-1865)
Reconstruction, Recovery, Road to Greatness (1866-1899)
World Conflict / World Power (1900-1920)
Peace and Depression (1921-1940)
The Nation at War Once More (1941-1945)
A Cold War World (1946-1959)
A New World in the Making (1960-1990)
Alone at the Top (1991-present)




Early Recorded History (1497-1619)

1497 - John Cabot reaches present day massachusetts

1519 - Alvarez de Pineda may have discovered the Mississippi River

1524 - Giovanni de Verrazano enters New York harbor

1539 - Father marcos de Niza explores Southwest, brags of cities of gold

1540 - Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's great party begins exploration of Southwest

1541 - Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River

1542 - Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovers San Diego Bay

1565 - St. Augustine, Florida, founded

1570 - (approx.) Iroquois Federation founded

1579 - Sir Francis Drake explores Pacific coast

1586 - Drake plunders St. Augustine

1587 - First English colony in North America is established in North Carolina, at Roanoke

1598 - Don Juan de Onate explores Southwest

1607 - Jamestown, Virginia founded; first permanent English settlement in North America
1607 - First ship constructed in the Americas, Popham, Maine

1609 - Santa Fe, New Mexico, founded

1609 - Henry Hudson explores the Hudson River

1609 - Samuel de Champlain explores the Northeast

1614 - Captain John Smith explores New Hampshire region

1619 - House of Burgesses formed in Jamestown






Growth Continues
(1620-1735)


1620 - Plymouth, Massachusetts, founded by Pilgrims

1624 - New Amsterdam (New York City) founded

1630 - Puritans settle Boston area

1632 - King grants Lord Baltimore a charter for Maryland

1634 - Benjamin Syms endows first U.S. free school, in Hampton, Virginia

1634 - Jean Nicolet passes through straits of Mackinac

1636 - harvard University founded, first university in United States

1636 - Rhode Island is acquired by Roger Williams, who finds Providence

1638 - Sweeds begin settlement at what is now Wilmington, Delaware

1643 - Tinicum Island is site of first European settlement in Pennsylvania

1664 - British conquer New Netherland (New York)

1670 - Charleston, South Carolina, founded, soon becomes early cultural center

1673 - Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet discover upper Mississippi, explore vast area

1675 - King Philip's War with the Wampanoag Indians begins

1676 - nathaniel Bacon leads Virginia planters in the first conflict over British rule

1682 - Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, claims vast Louisiana region for France

1682 - Ysleta founded, first permanent European settlement in Texas

1692 - Witchcraft trials and executions take place in Salem, Massachusetts

1701 - Detroit founded by Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac

1704 - First regular United States newspaper published, in Boston

1718 - Sieur de Bienville founds New Orleans, Louisiana

1729 - Baltimore, Maryland, founded

1733 - James Oglethorpe begins establishment of Georgia

1735 - Trial of John Peter Zenger recognizes freedom of the press





The Early Frontier
(1736-1764)


1741 - Vitus Bering becomes first explorer to reach Alaska

1748 - Ohio Company of Virginia organized to begin Ohio steeltment

1754 - French and Indian War begins

1760 - French rule in Detroit ends

1761 - First regular U.S. stagecoach run is begun, from Boston to Portsmouth, New Hampshire

1763 - French control in North America ends with British victory in French and Indian war

1763 - Chief Pontiac's siege of Detroit begins

1764 - St. Louis, Missouri, established

[Faryal Shah]

Seeds of Rebellion
(1765-1774)


1765 - Stamp Act incites the colonists against taxation without representation

1765 - Patrick Henry fans the flames of the colonists' discontent

1769 - First visit made by Daniel Boone to Kentucky

1770 - Boston Massacre occurs

1772 - Rhode Island residents burn British ship Gaspee to protest tax laws

1773 - Boston Tea Party takes place

1774 - Rhode Island abolishes slavery

1774 - First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia




The Revolution
(1775-1783)


1775 - Coxasckie declaration of independence signed

1775 - Bruno Heceta discovers the Columbia River

1775 - Midnight rid of Paul Revere alerts patriots to approach of British troops; battles of Lexington and Concord fought

1775 - Battle of Bunker Hill, first major battle of Revolution, takes place

1775 - Second Continental Congress names George Washington commander in chief of Continental Army

1776 - Enemy troops enter, then are forced to withdraw from Boston

1776 - Declaration of Independence is approved by the Continental Congress on July 4

1776 - Colonists driven back and defeated in Battle of Long Island

1776 - General Washington crosses Delaware River, wins Battle of Trenton

1777 - Washington loses Battle of Brandywine

1777 - British troops led by Lord William Howe enter Philadelphia

1777 - Continental Congress flees to York

1777 - Desperate winter spent by Continental Army at Valley Forge

1777 - Decisive Battle of Saratoga won by Americans

1777 - Articles of Confederation adopted by Continental Congress

1778 - Battle of Rhode Island fought

1778 - Captain James Cook arrives in Hawaii

1778 - Savannah, Georgia, is captured by the British

1778 - Benjamin Franklin brings about alliance with France

1779 - George Rogers Clark's capture of Vincennes, Indiana, confirms U.S. control in Midwest

1780 - French army of over 5,000 lands at Newport, Rhode Island

1780 - British fleet arrives at Newport and blocks Washington's attempt to retake New York

1781 - Lord Cornwallis arrives in Virginia, is overtaken by Washington and allies; surrenders at Yorktown

1781 - Los Angeles founded

1782 - Americans recapture Georgia

1783 - Treaty of Paris officially ends Revolutionary War





Becoming a Nation
(1784-1815)


1784 - "State of Franklin" proclaimed in Tennessee

1784 - Russia establishs settlement in Kodiak, Alaska

1786 - Last of the eastern states cede western land claims

1787 - Constitutional convention adopts Constitution of the United States

1787 - Delaware is first state to ratify new Constitution

1787 - Northwest Ordinance establishes Northwest Territory

1788 - Cincinnati founded, becomes "Queen City of the West"

1789 - Washington is inaugurated as first U.S. President

1790 - Rhode Island is last of the 13 original colonies to ratify Constitution

1791 - Virginia becomes a state

1792 - Kentucky becomes a state

1792 - American explorer Captain Robert Gray passes the treacherous Columbia River mouth

1793 - Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin

1795 - King Kamehameha I conquers most of Hawaii

1796 - Tennessee becomes a state

1800 - U.S. government moves to District of Columbia

1803 - Ohio becomes a state

1803 - Vast Louisiana Territory purchased from France

1804 - Great expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark leaves St. Louis

1804 - Duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr; Hamilton is killed, Burr becomes a fugitive

1805 - Lewis and Clark expedition reaches the Pacific

1805 - Zebulon Pike begins two years of exploration of the Southwest

1806 - Lewis and Clark bring back much knowledge about the Northwest

1807 - Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont sails up the Hudson River

1811 - First steamship sails on Ohio River

1811 - Indians under the Prophet defeated by William Henry harrison at Battle of Tipecanoe

1811 - Strong U.S. earthquake devastates central Mississippi River region, forms Reelfoot Lake in what is now Tennessee

1812 - Fort Ross is built by the Russians in what is now California

1812 - War of 1812 begins

1812 - Louisiana becomes a state

1812 - Fort Dearborn (chicago) massacre by Potawatomi Indians

1813 - Detroit recaptured by United States

1813 - Oliver Hazard Perry's victory over the British at Put-in-Bay ensures U.S. control of Great Lakes

1814 - British attack, are defeated at Fort McHenry; "Star-Spangled Banner" is composed

1814 - British burn Washington, DC

1814 - Battle of Plattsburgh brings U.S. control of Lake Champlain

1815 - Treaty of Ghent ends War of 1812

1815 - Andrew Jackson wins Battle of New Orleans after War of 1812 ends

1815 - Power loom introduced to the United States






Expansion and Controversy
(1816-1860)


1816 - Indiana enters the Union

1817 - Mississippi enters the Union

1817 - Indian resettlement begins in Oklahoma

1818 - Illinois enters the Union

1818 - First steamboat sails on the Great Lakes

1819 - Alabama enters the Union

1820 - Maine becomes a state

1821 - Andrew Jackson's successes in Indian wars bring Florida to the United States

1821 - First U.S. cathedral is consecrated in Baltimore

1821 - Missouri becomes a state (after Missouri Compromise on slavery is reached)

1822 - Santa Fe Trail blazed

1824 - First great annual fur "rendezvous" held in West

1824 - Dr. John McLoughlin establishes Fort Vancouver, Washington

1825 - Mexico takes control in California

1827 - First American, Jedediah Smith, struggles overland to California

1827 - Mechanics Union of Trade Association formed, in Philadelphia

1828 - America's first passenger railroad, which is horse-drawn, begins operation

1828 - Gold discovered in northern Georgia

1830 - Country's first railroad built for a steam engine begins operation in South Carolina

1832 - Black Hawk War pushes Indians west

1832 - Henry R. Schoolcraft discovers source of Mississippi River: Lake Itasca, in Minnesota

1834 - Indian Territory established in present day Oklahoma

1834 - Cyrus McCormic invents reaper, revolutionizing agriculture

1835 - Fire destroys 600 New York City buildings

1836 - Texans besieged by Mexican troops at the Alamo

1836 - Seminole War begins in Florida, as Indians protest forced removal

1836 - Sam Houston's Texans defeat Mexican leader Santa Anna in Battle of San Jacinto

1836 - Texas becomes an independent republic

1836 - Arkansas becomes a state

1837 - Electric motor invented by Thomas Davenport, in Vermont

1837 - John Deere invents steel plow

1837 - Michigan becomes a state

1838 - Last of Cherokee forced over infamous "Trail of Teers" to Oklahoma, where Indian nations begin their great advances

1838 - First Mardi Gras parade held in New Orleans

1841 - William Henry harrison becomes the first president to die in office

1841 - First commercial use of natural gas, in Malden, West Virginia

1842 - Dr. Crawford W. Long is first to use ether as an anesthetic

1842 - Webster - Ashburton Treaty establishes northeast border with Canada

1843 - First major westward immigration begins, from Missouri

1843 - Hawaii recognized as an independent nation

1844 - Mormon leader Joseph smith murdered; Mormons leave Iowa

1845 - Texas and Florida become states

1845 - Naval Academy founded at Annapolis

1845 - California Republic is formed

1846 - Oregon and Washington come under U.S. control after agreement with Britain; expansions had called for "54o 40' or fight" boundary

1846 - War with Mexico over disputed southwest lands

1846 - Iowa becomes a state

1846 - Elias Howe invents sewing machine

1847 - Mormon pioneer refugees found Salt Lake city

1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Mexico adds Southwest region to United States

1848 - Wisconsin becomes a state

1849 - Unparalleled gold rush begins, with arrival of California 49ers

1850 - California becomes a state

1853 - Gadsden Purchase completes U.S. lands in Southwest

1853 - New York holds nation's first world's fair

1854 - Republican party formed

1855 - Sault Ste. Marie canal opens, eventually becomes world's busiest

1856 - Slave disagreement grows, flares in Kansas / Missouri guerrilla war

1858 - Minnesota becomes a state

1858 - Debates between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln focus national tention on Lincoln

1859 - Comstrock silver boom begins in Nebraska

1859 - Five Civilized Tripes hold council, consolidate their gains, in present-day Oklahoma

1859 - John Brown seizes federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia; is tried and executed

1859 - Oregon becomes a state

1859 - World's first petroleum well pumps in Titusville, Pennsylvania

1860 - Pony Express begins its brief life

1860 - Regular steamboat runs begin in upper Missouri River

1860 - Lincoln elected president
Return to list of time periods

[Faryal Shah]

Times of Great Travail
(1861-1865)


1861 - Kansas enters the Union as a free state

1861 - Southern states, eventually numbering 11, form Confederacy

1861 - Civil War begins with Confederate attack at Fort Sumter, South Carolina

1861 - North American continent is spanned by telegraph

1861 - Northern forces routed at first Battle of Bull Run

1861 - Confederates seize Fort Pulaski, Georgia, many other strongholds

1862 - Northern drive on Richomnd, Virginia, fails

1862 - Battle of the Monitor and Merrimae

1862 - Battle of Antietam, Maryland, halts Confederates' northern advance

1862 - Union drive defeated by Robert E. Lee at Fredericksburg, Virginia

1862 - Battles of Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove, Arkansas

1862 - Battles of Shiloh, Iuka, Booneville, Mississippi

1862 - Decoration Day first celebrated, Mississippi

1863 - Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves

1863 - Ulysses S. Grant lays siege to Southern stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi

1863 - Battle of Gettysburg halts Lee's drive north, is decisive turning point of civil War

1863 - Federal forces defeated at Chickamauga

1863 - William Clarke Quantrill burns Lawrence, Kansas

1863 - Vicksburg, Jackson, and Natchez fall to north; Union forces completely control Mississippi River

1863 - West Virginia becomes state, maintains Union sympathies

1863 - Battle of Missionary Ridge provides an important Union victory

1864 - Grant placed at head of all Union armies

1864 - Captain David Farragut captures Mobile Bay (Alabama)

1864 - Sand Creek massacre of Indians in Colorado

1864 - General William Tecumseh Sherman captures and burns Atlanta, captures Savannah

1864 - Nevada becomes a state

1865 - Petersburg and Richmond fall to Union forces

1865 - Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House, Virginia

1865 - Lincoln is assassinated

1865 - Jefferson Davis captured in Irwinville, Georgia

1865 - Jesse Chisholm blazes Chisholm Trail






Reconstruction, Recovery, Road to Greatness
(1866-1899)


1866 - First bridge built across Ohio River

1867 - Alaska purchased from Russia by the United States

1867 - Nebraska enters the Union

1867 - C. Latham Sholes invents the typewriter

1868 - President Andrew Johnson is impeached, cleared by Senate

1869 - First transcontinental railroad connects east and west coasts

1871 - Great Chicago fire

1872 - Yellowstone becomes first national park

1874 - George Armstrong Custer expedition finds Black Hills gold in South Dakota

1875 - First Kentucky Derby in Louisville

1876 - Custer defeated, his troops wiped out at Battle of Little Bighorn, Montana

1876 - Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia

1876 - Colorado becomes a state

1877 - Chief Joseph defeated in Nez Perce War

1877 - Thomas Edison invents the phonograph

1878 - Devastating yellow faver epidemic strikes South

1880 - Gold rush in Juneau, Alaska

1881 - President James Garfield is assassinated in Washington, DC

1884 - Cigarette-making machinery fuels growth of smoking

1884 - First U.S. golf course opens in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

1884 - Minnesota iron ore dominance begins

1885 - Washington Monument dedicated

1885 - World's first steel frame skyscraper rises in Chicago

1886 - Coca-Cola is formulated and introduced in Atlanta

1886 - Statue of Liberty dedicated

1868 - American Federation of Labor formed in Pittsburgh

1887 - Bauxite (aluminum) discovered in Arkansas

1888 - Great Blizzard causes 400 deaths in eastern United States

1889 - First "run" for land titles begins Oklahoma land boom

1889 - Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood kills 2,200 people

1889 - North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington enter the Union

1890 - Sioux leader Sitting Bull is killed by U.S. forces

1890 - South Dakota is site of last Indian battle in United States, at Wonded Knee

1890 - Wyoming and Idaho enter the Union

1893 - Hawaiian monarchy is overthrown

1893 - World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, most splendid ever

1894 - First "modern" automobile perfected by Elwood Haynes

1896 - Utah enters the Union

1898 - U.S. battleship Maine blown up in Havanna Harbor, Cuba, igniting Spanish American war

1898 - U.S. Marines invade Cuba, capture Philippines and Puerto Rico

1898 - War success asserts U.S. presence in Caribbean and Pacific

1898 - Hawaii is annexed by the United States

1898 - City of New York created by five boroughs

1898 - Kensington Runestone discovered in Minnesota

1898 - Mississippi International Exposition held in Omaha, Nebraska

1899 - Nome, Alaska, gold rush occurs






World Conflict / World Power
(1900-1920)


1900 - Chicago River is reversed, creating a water route from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico

1900 - International Ladies' Garment Workers Union founded in New York City

1901 - Carlsbad Caverns discovered in New Mexico

1901 - President William McKinley assassinated at Buffalo world's fair; Theodore Roosevelt becomes president

1901 - Spindletop oil flows in Texas, heralds age of petroleum

1902 - Nation's first national forest established, in Wyoming

1902 - Social reforms of Governor Robert M. La Follette in Wisconsin set national pattern

1903 - Gold discovered in Fairbanks, Alaska

1903 - Panama Canal Zone comes under U.S. jurisdiction

1903 - Wright Brothers make world's first powered airplane flight

1903 - Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri

1906 - Diamonds discovered in Arkansas

1906 - San Francisco devastated by earthquake and fire

1907 - Oklahoma enters the Union

1908 - First Model T Ford introduced

1911 - First Indianapolis 500 automobile race held

1911 - President Theodore Roosevelt dedicates Roosevelt Dam in Arizona

1911 - Rebecca Felton, of Georgia, is appointed as first woman U.S. senator

1911 - World's first overland airmail, from Des Moines, Iowa, to Chicago

1912 - Georgia is birthplace of Girl Scouts of America

1912 - Woman gain right to vote in Oregon and Kansas

1912 - Railroad is built across sea over the Florida Keys, from Miami to Key West

1912 - Arizona and New Mexico become last of the conterminous states

1913 - Grand Canyon becomes national park

1914 - Panama Canol opens, just as Germany declares war on France

1916 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana is first woman elected to Congress

1916 - Virgin Islands purchased from Denmark by the U.S.

1917 - The United States joins Allied forces opposing German alliance in World War I

1918 - World War I ends with Allied Victory

1918 - Large-scaleinfluenza epidemic ravages the nation

1919 - Boston police strike broken by National Guard

1920 - World's first commercial broadcasting station established in Pittsburgh

1920 - 19th Amendment ratified, giving women right to vote






Peace and Depression


1921 - Great destruction of cotton crops by boll weevil

1922 - Lincoln Memorial dedicated

1923 - President Warren G. Harding dies; Calvin Coolidge becomes president

1924 - George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue introduce symphonic jazz

1924 - All Native American Indians are made U.S. citizens

1924 - Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected as the first woman governor in the United States

1927 - First airplane flight from mainland to Hawaii

1927 - Charles Lindbergh makes first solo flight across the Atlantic

1929 - Stock market collapse ignites the Great Depression

1930 - First America's Cup race in the United States, at Newport, Rhode Island

1931 - George Washington Bridge, Empire State Building opened

1932 - Winter Olympics are held in the United States for the first time, at Lake Placid

1932 - First woman elected to U.S. Senate, Hattie Caraway of Arkansas

1933 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes president, begins "100 Days" and New Deal to Combat Depression

1934 - Nebraska becomes only state with a unicameral legislature

1935 - Will Rogers and Wiley Post killed in Alaska plane crash

1935 - Controversial Louisiana politician Huey Long assassinated

1936 - Hoover Dam begins operation

1937 - Golden Gate bridge opens in San Francisco

1937 - Dirigible Hindenburg explodes at Lakehurst, New Jersey

1937 - Worst Ohio River floods yet

1938 - Oregon's Bonneville Dam begins operation

1939 - Persident Roosevelt opens New York World's Fair

1940 - Roosevelt elected to unprecedented third term

1940 - Nation's first peacetime draft anticipates war needs

[Faryal Shah]

The Nation at War Once More
(1941-1945)


1941 - Grand Coulee Dam completed in Washington

1941 - U.S. Lend-Lease aid extended to Britain and Soviet Union

1941 - U.S. ships attacked at sea by German submarines

1941 - United States attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor; declares war

1942 - Corregidor falls; Japanese take control of the Philippines

1942 - Americans of Japanese ancestry (Nisei) moved to isolated camps

1942 - American and Philippine prisoners forced on "death march" by Japanese

1942 - Japanese suffer severe naval defeat at Battle of Midway

1942 - Americans land on Guadalcanal Island, take control after bitter battle

1942 - General Dwight Eisenhower lands U.S. forces in North Africa

1942 - First controlled nuclear chain reaction produced at University of Chicago

1943 - Allied leaders hold series of meetings at Casablanca, Cairo, and Teheran

1943 - Japanese defeated in Battle of Bismarck Sea with great losses

1943 - U.S. forces free Aleutian Islands

1943 - Allied forces capture Sicily, reach Italian mainland

1943 - U.S. Marines capture "impregnable" Tarawa

1943 - First subway operates in Chicago

1944 - 50,000 U.S. troops withstand long seige of Casino, Italy

1944 - Eisenhower prepares to attack main German defenses in northern Europe

1944 - American forces capture the Marshall Islands

1944 - American Fifth Army enters Rome

1944 - Vast Allied forces land in Normandy France (D-Day)

1944 - American forces Saipan and Marianas

1944 - With slight losses, American forces win Battle of Philippine Sea

1944 - U.S. forces capture Guam in march across the Pacific

1944 - Allied forces enter Paris

1944 - General Douglas MacArthur returns to Philippines, as he promised

1944 - Allies experience sever losses in the Battle of the Bulge

1944 - Allied bombers carry out 40,000 sorties against Germany

1945 - Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin meet at Yalta

1945 - Buchenwalt extermination camp liberated by U.S. forces

1945 - President Roosevelt dies; Harry S Truman becomes president

1945 - United Nations founded at San Francisco

1945 - Germany surrenders unconditionally

1945 - World's first atomic bomb explosion at Alamogordo, New Mexico

1945 - Dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brings Japanese surrender






A Cold War World
(1946-1959)


1946 - In speech at Fulton, Missouri, Churchill coins the phrase "Iron Curtain"

1946 - United States gives the Philippines complete independence

1946 - Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes nation's first Catholic saint

1947 - The nation undertakes its responsibilities as a superpower

1947 - United States begins oversight of Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

1947 - Marshall Plan leads way toward European recovery from war

1947 - Voice of America begins broadcasts to Soviets

1947 - Sound barrier is broken by Charles Yeager

1947 - Jackie Robinson becomes first black in modern major league baseball

1948 - United States is the first nation to recognize Israel

1948 - Soviets blockade Berlin; U.S./British airlift overcomes the move

1949 - Rocket projects begin at Huntsville, Alabama

1949 - United States joins North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

1949 - Truman announces that Soviets have the Atomic bomb

1949 - South Dakota becomes nation's leading gold producer

1950 - Truman sends combat troops to Korea

1950 - Wisconsin Senator Joseph mcCarthy begins anti-Communism campaign

1950 - Lava flow from Hawaii's Mauna Loa is largest in modern times

1950 - Ute Indians receive $31,700,000 for lands taken from them

1951 - With U.S. help, UN forces capture Seoul, Korea

1951 - Korean War becomes a stalemate

1951 - Atomic-powered electricity operates for first time, in Arco, Idaho

1951 - Ratification of 22nd Amendment limits presidents to two terms in office.

1952 - First experimental H-bomb exploded at Pacific proving grounds

1952 - Eisenhower elected president

1952 - Puerto Rico becomes a U.S. commonwealth

1952 - Iowa is first state to produce a billion dollar corn crop

1952 - United Nations moves to New York City headquarters

1953 - Eisenhower reaches difficult armistice in Korea

1954 - Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education declares school segregation unconstitutional

1954 - First atomic-powered submarine launched at Gronton, Connecticut

1954 - McCarthy censured by Senate; McCarthyism fades

1954 - First Newport jazz festival held in Rhode Island

1955 - Polio conquered by new vaccine discovered by Dr. Jonas Salk

1955 - Rosa Parks contests "Jim Crow" segregation in Montgomery, Alabama

1955 - Supreme Court expands desegregation rulings

1955 - Major unions form AFL-CIO

1955 - Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs

1957 - Eisenhower sends federal troops to enforce historic court order mandating school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas

1957 - First Nuclear electric power plant opens in Shippingport, Pennsylvania

1957 - First Soviet sattelite brings spae race

1957 - Mackinac Bridge is built

1958 - Explorer 1, first U.S. satellite, launched

1958 - First scheduled jet plane crosses the Atlantic

1958 - American Van Cliburn wins Soviet's Tchaikovsky contest

1959 - Alaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th states

1959 - St. Lawrence Seaway brings ocean shipping to Great Lakes

1959 - First schools integrated in Virginia

1959 - Widespread earthquake damages Yellowstone National Park

1959 - Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev visits United States; first hints of better U.S. / Soviet relationships






A New World in the Making
(1960-1990)


1960 - American U-2 reconnaissance plane is shot down over Soviet Union

1961 - First American troops arrive in Vietnam

1961 - Freedom Riders challange Southern segregation practices

1961 - President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps

1962 - Astronaut John Glenn makes first U.S. orbital flight

1963 - President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas; Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president

1963 - California becomes largest state in population

1964 - Reported attack on U.S. destroyers in Gulf of Tonkin; Johnson orders major U.S. involvement in Vietnam

1964 - Landmark Civil Rights Act passed

1964 - Beatles perform first U.S. concert, in New York's Carnegie Hall

1964 - Disastrous Alaska earthquake strikes

1964 - FTC requires health warnings on all cigarette packages

1965 - Hurricane Betsy ravages much of the Gulf Coast

1965 - North American Air Defense Command begins operations in Colorado

1966 - Gateway Arch dedicated in St. Louis

1967 - Thurgood Marshall sworn in as first African-American on Supreme Court

1968 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee

1968 - Large oil deposits discovered at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska

1968 - Senator Robert F. Kennedy is shot and killed in Los Angeles

1969 - Neil Armstrong becomes first person to walk on the moon

1969 - Harvard scientists discover a single gene, basic unit of heredity

1970 - McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System begins operations

1971 - Spacecraft Mariner 9 orbits Mars

1972 - President Richard Nixon makes historic trip to China

1972 - First major league baseball strike, lasts for 13 days

1973 - U.S. involvement in Vietnam War ends ingloriously, with 50,000 U.S. servicepersons dead

1973 - In Roe v. Wade decision, Supreme Court rules that abortion is legal

1973 - Senate hearings begin into break-in at Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate

1973 - Wounded Knee, South Dakota, occupied during Indian protest

1974 - Nixon becomes first U.S. president to resign

1974 - Chicago's Sears Tower becomes world's tallest building

1975 - Columbia/Snake River navigation system completed

1975 - Elizabeth Ann Seton named first American-born Saint

1975 - Ella T. Grasso of Connecticut becomes first woman elected governer without family ties

1976 - Bicentennial recognized with extensive national celebrations

1976 - Agreement makes Mariana Islands a U.S. commonwealth

1976 - Legionnaire's disease identified

1977 - First landing of Concorde SST in United States

1977 - Singer Elvis Presley dies

1977 - Trans-Alaska pipeline opens

1978 - Hannah Gray becomes president of University of Chicago, first woman to head a major U.S. university

1979 - Three Mile Island nuclear power plant malfunctions in Pennsylvania

1980 - Ronald Reagan is elected president

1980 - First woman graduates from U.S. Military Academy at West Point

1980 - Mt. St. Helens erupts in Washington; ash covers 120 square miles

1980 - Former Beatle John Lennon is shot and killed

1981 - Iran releases 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days

1981 - Reagan is shot and wounded

1981 - First space shuttle is launched

1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as first woman on the Supreme Court

1983 - Bomb destroys U.S. Marine headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 service persons

1983 - Sally Ride is first U.S. woman in space

1986 - Space shuttle Challanger explodes; six astronauts and teacher Christa McAuliffe killed

1986 - Congressional hearings begin into Iran / Contra affair

1989 - U.S. forces invade Panama, overthrow Manuel Noriega

1989 - Largest oil spill in U.S. history at Prince William Sound, Alaska

1989 - L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia is first African-American elected governor of a U.S. state since Reconstruction

1990 - U.S. forces reach Persian Gulf to defend area against Iraq





Alone at the Top
(1991-present)


1991 - Soviet Union in disarray, separates into individual nations; United States is only remaining "superpower"

1991 - United States and allies defeat Iraq, liberate Kuwait in Gulf War

1991 - California wildfires bring destruction and 24 deaths

1992 - Riots in Los Angeles follow the acquittal of four policeman on trial for beating a black man

1992 - Hurricane Andrew hits Florida and Gulf straights causing massive destruction

1992 - Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois is first African-American woman elected to Senate

1993 - Midwest suffers one of the most disastrous floods in its history

1993 - Terrorist bomb explodes in New York City's World Trade Center; six people are killed

1993 - Branch Davidian cult headquarters burns at Waco, Texas, during FBI raid; more than 70 cult members die

1994 - Earthquake strikes Los Angeles, claiming 61 lives

1994 - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis dies

1994 - Republicans gain control of both houses of Congress

1994 - Major league baseball players go on strike; World Series canceled

1995 - California suffers dissastrous floods following torrential rains

1995 - Federal building in Oklahoma City bombed in terrorist attack, killing 169

1995 - Massive heat wave kills over 800 in Midwest and Northeast

1995 - Football great O.J. Simpson is acquitted of murder

1995 - An African-American "Million Man March" is held in Washington, DC

1996 - Blizzard strikes Northeast

1996 - President Bill Clinton and Congress grapple over the federal budget






regards

faryal shah

[Saqib Shah]

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[sHaH TaiMoOr]

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[Islaw Khan]

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