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Aug 3, 1492
The Discovery of America by Columbus
His objective was to sail west until he reached Asia (the Indies) where the riches of gold, pearls and spice awaited. This is Significant because this led to the great living of white men but the genocide of Native Americans -
The Settlement of Jamestown
This was the first successful English settlement on the mainland of North America. This is significant because the settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America. -
The French and Indian War
The French and Indian War comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War. This is significant because It pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France. -
The Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest against taxation by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts. This is significant because spilling the tea over the Boston ships would eventually lead to the American Revolution. -
The Battle of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. This is significant because after a full-scale war of independence had broken out. -
The Declaration of Independence
the formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the freedom of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. This is significant because this is the document saying we are free. -
The Battle of Yorktown
The last battle of the Revolutionary War.The significance of the conflict was that Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington as French and American forces trapped the British at Yorktown. The British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown ended the American Revolutionary War. -
The Constitutional Convention
The gathering that drafted the Constitution of the United States. All states were invited to send delegates. The convention, meeting in Philadelphia, designed a government with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. This is significant because its the foundation of our nation. -
The invention of the cotton gin
inventor Eli Whitney (1765-1825) patented the cotton gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. This is significant because it was so difficult to get the seeds out by hand so it made the slave work a little easier. -
The Alien and Sedition Acts
A series of laws known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by the Federalist Congress in 1798 and signed into law by President Adams. These laws included new powers to deport foreigners as well as making it harder for new immigrants to vote. This is significant because The Alien and Sedition Acts were designed by Federalists to limit the power of the opposition Republican Party. -
The Louisiana Purchase
The purchase by the United States from France of the huge Louisiana Territory in 1803. President Thomas Jefferson ordered the purchase negotiations, fearing that the French, then led by Napoleon, wanted to establish an empire in North America.The Louisiana Purchase is important because it gave the U.S. control of the Mississippi River and the port city of New Orleans, both of which were used by farmers to ship their crops and get paid. -
The War of 1812
The War of 1812 was an armed conflict between the United States and the British Empire. ... The Americans objected to the British Empire restricting their trade and snatching their sailors to serve on British ships. This war was different with its significance because the reason this happened was not addressed in The Treaty of Ghent (which ended the conflict). -
The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free. this is significant because it ended slavery in the south. -
The Trail of Tears
The route along which the United States government forced several tribes of Native Americans, including the Cherokees, Seminoles, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks, to migrate to reservations west of the Mississippi River in the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s. This is significant because In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. Many dead -
Andrew Jackson’s Election
The United States presidential election of 1828 featured a rematch between John Quincy Adams, now incumbent President, and Andrew Jackson. Unlike the 1824 election, no other major candidates appeared in the race, allowing Jackson to consolidate a power base and easily win an electoral victory over Adams. This was significant because of his posture as "the common man's" candidate. Jackson was one of the first Presidents elected who did not have the Federalist pedigree of prior candidates. -
The invention of the telegraph
Developed in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse (1791-1872) and other inventors. It was significant because the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. -
The Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down while unemployment went up. Pessimism abounded during the time. this is significant because a new banking system initiated by President Andrew Jackson and his Specie Circular that effectively dried up credit. -
The Mexican-American War
A war fought between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. The United States won the war, encouraged by the feelings of many Americans that the country was accomplishing its manifest destiny of expansion. This is significant because this is how Americans began to have all of the United States like it is today. -
The Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. A significance was as part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. -
firing on fort sumter
a fort in SE South Carolina, in the harbor of Charleston: its bombardment by the Confederates opened the Civil War. This was significant because The Battle of Fort Sumter was the first battle of the American Civil War. The intense Confederate artillery bombardment of Major Robert Anderson's small Union garrison in the unfinished fort in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina, had been preceded by months of siege-like conditions -
The Emancipation Proclamation
On Jan. 1, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared free all slaves residing in territory in rebellion against the federal government. This is significant because when it took effect in January 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation freed 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves -
The Organization of Standard Oil Trust
John D. Rockefeller created Standard Oil Trust by trading stockholders' shares for trust certificates. This is significant because the trust was designed to allow Rockefeller and other Standard Oil stockholders to get around state laws prohibiting one company from owning stock in another. -
13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, known collectively as the Civil War Amendments, were designed to ensure equality for recently emancipated slaves. This is significant because the 13th Amendment banned slavery and all involuntary servitude, except in the case of punishment for a crime. -
Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
The Battle of Appomattox Court House is significant because it was one of the last battles of the American Civil War. It was the final engagement of Confederate States Army general Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Ulysses S. Grant. -
Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., just as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. This is significant because at the end of the Civil War two very different plans for reconstructing the nation were offered. one to help and the other to punish the southern states -
Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment
After Johnson's dismissal of Stanton, the House of Representatives voted 126 to 47 in favor of a resolution to impeach the President for high crimes and misdemeanors. ... This is significant because one week later, the House adopted eleven articles of impeachment against the President. -
The invention of the electric light, telephone, and airplane
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), the Scottish-born American scientist best known as the inventor of the telephone. He also invented the telephone. On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright flew the first powered, heavier-than-air airplane. these were both significant inventions and they shaped technology for the future. -
The Pullman and Homestead Strikes
On June 29, 1892, workers belonging to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers struck the Carnegie Steel Company at Homestead ( to protest a proposed wage cut.) This is important because the American Railway Union led a national strike that shut down the country's railroad system. George Pullman called on the federal government to break the strike and get the trains running again. This shows how the people of a nation can make a difference. -
The Spanish-American War
A war between Spain and the United States, fought in 1898. The war began as an intervention by the United States on behalf of Cuba. The United States acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines in the war and gained temporary control over Cuba. By the Treaty of Paris , Spain renounced all claim to Cuba, ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States, and transferred sovereignty over the Philippines to the United States for $20,000,000. -
Theodore Roosevelt becomes president
Roosevelt served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley, but resigned from that post to lead the Rough Riders during the Spanish–American War. ... Following McKinley's assassination in September 1901, Roosevelt became president at age 42, and remains the youngest president. This is significant because he did many great things for our nation for example He facilitated the construction of the Panama Canal.
