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Smallpox Epidemic
The smallpox epidemic that struck in 1721 was one of the most deadly of the century in colonial America. -
First Continental Congress Calls for Abolition of Slave Trade
The First Continental Congress's call for the abolition of the slave trade marked a pivotal moment in American history, reflecting early efforts towards moral and political reckoning with the institution of slavery. -
First Great Awakening
A period when spirituality and religious devotion were revived through the spread of Protestant beliefs. -
Proclamation of 1763
Created a border that prevented English colonists from settling on lands gained after the French and Indian War -
Philadelphia Quakers found world’s first anti-slavery society
The founding of the world's first anti-slavery society by Philadelphia Quakers marked a significant milestone in the global struggle against the institution of slavery. -
Land Ordinance of 1785
Set up a system for settling the Northwest Territory by dividing the land into townships. -
The Northwest Ordinance
Established the process for territories to gain statehood after they reached a population of 60k. -
Second Great Awakening
A Protestant religious revival which spread religion through revivals. Used the ideal that God offered salvation for all who chose to embrace it -
Republican Motherhood
To pass on republican values to the next generation, the "Republican Mother" was given the responsibility of upholding the morality of her husband and children by implementing republican ideals. -
The First US Census
The 1790 census was the first federally sponsored count of the American people. The census fulfilled a constitutional mandate and became a symbol of national prosperity and progress. -
Alien and Sedition Acts
Raised the requirements for American citizenship, allowed the president to deport "aliens," and allowed for their arrest, imprisonment, and deportation during war. -
Louisiana Purchase
Jefferson bought all 530,000,000 acres of French Land from France for $15 million. Originally only set out to purchase port city St. Louis. -
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Lewis and Clark Expedition
Expedition that Jefferson ordered to explore the newly purchased land Louisiana Purchase territory. Started from St. Louis and went for 8000 more miles. -
Adams-Onís Treaty
An agreement between the United States and Spain which defined the US's western borders of the Louisiana Purchase. In exchange, Spain ceded Florida while gaining sovereignty over Texas. -
"Indian" Removal Act
Jackson's proposal to remove all Native Americans from the Southeast. -
Know-Nothing’s
A nativist group which aimed to get rid of foreign influences in the US and uphold traditional democratic ideals. -
Dorothea Dix
Nurse who was a reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill. One of the first women-run reforms that inspired the multitude of women-run reforms to come. -
Annexation of Texas
After declaring independence from Mexico, the Republic of Texas was annexed into the US as the 28th state. -
Irish Potato Famine
Failure of the potato crop, one of Irelands largest sources of food, caused an influx of Irish immigrants to the US. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Mexico sold New Mexico and it's part of California to the United States for $15 million. The treaty halved the size of Mexico and doubled the size of the US. -
The Seneca Falls Convention
Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Seneca falls convention served to bring the question of suffrage and women's rights into the public focus. After this Convention, women began to be increasingly educated and involved in social life. -
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Reconstruction Era
The Reconstruction era was the period after the American Civil War from 1865 to 1877, during which the United States grappled with the challenges of reintegrating into the Union the states that had seceded and determining the legal status of African Americans. -
Reconstruction Amendments
The 13, 14, and 15th Amendments were passed and officially ended overt slavery, gave citizenship to newly freed African Americans, and established the right to vote regardless of race -
Purchase of Alaska
The US purchased Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million, less than 2 cents per acre. Led to the US expanding its land mass by more than 600,000 acres. -
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Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age is described as the period from about the 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction Era and the Progressive Era. -
Women’s Christian Temperance Movement
The temperance movement, which sought to curb the consumption of alcohol, had a large influence on American politics and American society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, leading to the prohibition of alcohol by the 18th amendment. -
”New South” & the KKK
The New South was a propaganda term developed by boosters who wanted to insist that the South had put the old days of slavery behind it, that racial harmony was reigning. It was mostly a way of appealing to Northerners to invest money in the South. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The first significant law that restricted immigration into the US. Targeted those from China and caused a 10-year ban on Chinese laborers trying to come to the US. -
National American Women’s Suffrage Association
The NAWSA was the largest and most important suffrage organization in the United States, and was the primary promoter of women's right to vote. -
Ellis Island
Ellis Island became known as the "Island of Hope" and became Immigrants' first stop to entering America, a land of new opportunities. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Upheld "separate, but equal" and basically constitutionalized and made racial segregation legal. -
National Association of Colored Women
Helped mobilize voter registration drives for blacks on a local level. It also promoted cultural events, including music concerts and poetry readings. -
Annexation of Hawaii
After the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown, Hawaii was annexed by the US as the 50th state. Allowed the US to have territory into the Pacific, displaying the rise of the United States as a Pacific power. -
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909 to abolish segregation and opposed racism. Promoted civil rights. -
Bracero Program
The US and Mexico signed an agreement that allowed for Mexican laborers to come to the US to find temporary work. This was signed to fill labor gaps caused by WW2. -
Great Migration
Over 6 million blacks moved from the South to the North/West -
First Red Scare
Started the campaign to stop communism, detaining thousands of suspects. Thousands of Russians were deported without trials. Caused panic and fear throughout the nation of a potential overthrow. -
Immigration Act of 1917
Created the "barred zone" which extended from the Middle East to Southeast Asia and restricted immigration from the area. -
Ratification of the 19th Amendment
Gave women the right to vote. -
Mass Media in the 20's
The record chart, the book club, the radio, the talking picture, and spectator sports all became popular forms of mass entertainment. -
Flapper Culture
Flappers of the 1920s were young women known for their energetic freedom, embracing a lifestyle viewed by many at the time as outrageous, immoral or downright dangerous. Fappers pushed barriers to economic, political and sexual freedom for women, and are regarded as the first generation of independent women. -
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The Roaring 20's
A period of rapid economic growth and social change in music and fashion. Where the wealth grew rapidly and the rich became richer. It created the largest wave of prosperity the world had ever seen, a flowing current of money, innovation, and change. -
No Japanese Citizenship
In 1922, Japan implemented a law restricting citizenship solely to those of Japanese descent, excluding other ethnicities. -
Proposal of the Equal Rights Amendment
Written by Alice Paul (from Mt. Laurel), the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would invalidate many state and federal laws that discriminate against women; its central underlying principle is that sex should not determine the legal rights of men or women. -
Border Patrol Established
In response to mass illegal immigration, the US established the border patrol. -
"Indian" Citizenship Act
Also known as the Snyder Act, the "Indian" Citizenship Act gave citizenship to all Native Americans that were born in the US. -
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World War II
Five million women entered the workforce between 1940-1945. The gap in the labor force created by departing soldiers meant opportunities for women. In particular, World War II led many women to take jobs in defense plants and factories around the country. -
Second Red Scare
Start of McCarthyism. A campaign that spread fear of communist influence on America and of espionage by Soviet agents. -
Little Rock Nine
Little Rock 9 happened when Orval Faubus who was the governor of Arkansas at the time, Didn't let the little rock 9 go to an all white high school that they had the right to go to -
Executive Order 9981
Abolished discrimination "on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin" in the United States Armed Forces. Led to the re-integration of the services during the Korean War -
McCarran-Walter Act
Expanded the Federal Government's power to exclude, deport, and detain "aliens". -
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African American Civil Rights Movement
When did the American civil rights movement start? The American civil rights movement started in the mid-1950s. A major catalyst in the push for civil rights was in December 1955, when NAACP activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson by ruling that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools were unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise "equal in quality". -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The boycotts were a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States which consisted of a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. -
Counterculture
The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon and political movement that developed in the Western world during the mid-20th century. It began in the early 1960s, and continued through the early 1970s. Wikipedia -
Sit-In Movement
The sit-in movement, sit-in campaign or student sit-in movement, were a wave of sit-ins that followed the Greensboro sit-ins on February 1, 1960 in North Carolina. The sit-in movement employed the tactic of nonviolent direct action and was a pivotal event during the Civil Rights Movement. -
Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. -
Ratification of the 24th Amendment
The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing. -
Formation of the Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) was founded in October 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, who met at Merritt College in Oakland. It was a revolutionary organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibited racial discrimination in voting. Passed by LBJ. -
Immigration and Nationality Act
Abolished the "national-origins" quota and doubled the number of immigrants allowed to enter annually. -
LGBTQ+ Movement
The Stonewall riots, also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall, were a series of protests by members of the LGBTQ community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Gay Bar. -
Stop ERA
Eleanor Roosevelt and most New Dealers also opposed the ERA. They felt that ERA was designed for middle-class women, but that working-class women needed government protection. They also feared that the ERA would undercut the male-dominated labor unions that were a core component of the New Deal coalition. -
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protected a right to have an abortion. -
Simpson-Mazzoli Act
Attempt to stop illegal immigration by establishing Bracero Program citizens as 2nd class citizens and forced employers to check for it. -
Islamophobia After 9/11
For Muslim Americans, a spike in hate incidents feels reminiscent of post 9/11 Islamophobia. -
PATRIOT Act
Granted the federal government sweeping new powers to expand surveillance, curtail financing, and deport aliens in connection with terrorist activity. -
Supreme Court Decision on Same-Sex Marriage
The Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples in the United States, no matter where they live, have the same legal right to marry as different-sex couples.