Timeline
~ 12,000 B.C.: Nomadic hunters cross the Bering Strait from Siberia into North America; however, the exact dates of the earliest migration are disputed.
~ 1000 A.D.: The Viking Leif Eriksson visits present-day northeastern Canada.
October 12, 1492: Christopher Columbus reaches San Salvador, “discovering” the New World.
April 1507: Martin Waldseemüller names the continent “America” on a new world map in honor of Amerigo Vespucci.
1570s: The Iroquois Confederacy (or Haudenosaunee: ‘People of the Longhouse,’ Five Nations, later Six Nations) is founded; members include the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca (Tuscarora).
1585: Sir Walter Raleigh establishes Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement.
May 14, 1607: English settlers establish a colony in Jamestown (Virginia), the first permanent English settlement.
August 1619: The first African slaves are brought to the English part of North America.
November 21, 1620: The Pilgrims from England reach Plymouth (Massachusetts) with the Mayflower and settle there. The Mayflower Compact, a kind of social contract, is signed.
1656: The first Quakers arrive in New England.
1692: The Salem witch trials take place in Massachusetts.
June 1, 1740: The Plantation Act comes into effect; this law is intended to encourage settlement in the colonies and regulate the colonial naturalization processes.
June 18 – July 11, 1754: The Albany Congress; American representatives from the colonies meet and discuss for the first time what a formal union might look like.
1754-1763: Seven Years’ War in North America (known in English as the French and Indian War). After the war, the English have the greatest control over North America. It ends with the Treaty of Paris (February 10, 1763).
December 16, 1773: Boston Tea Party; colonists from Massachusetts, disguised as Native Americans, throw tea into Boston Harbor to protest the taxes imposed by England. “No taxation without representation.”
September 5 – October 26, 1774: First Continental Congress in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania); twelve colonies send delegates.
October 20, 1774: The Continental Association.
April 19, 1775: British soldiers and colonial militias exchange fire in Lexington and Concord (Massachusetts); the American Revolutionary War begins.
May 10, 1775: The Congress votes to form a Continental Army from the militia groups around Boston. George Washington is appointed commanding general, and on June 14, it becomes the United States Army.
January 10, 1776: Thomas Paine publishes “Common Sense,” a pamphlet advocating for independence from Great Britain.
July 4, 1776: The Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence.
November 5, 1777: The Second Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation; they are ratified on March 1, 1781.
October 19, 1781: A large British army surrenders in Yorktown (Virginia), effectively ending the American Revolutionary War.
September 3, 1783: The Treaty of Paris (also known as the Second Treaty of Paris) ends the American Revolutionary War.
September 17, 1787: A convention of delegates approves a draft that later becomes the U.S. Constitution (Constitutional Convention of the United States).
December 15, 1788 – January 10, 1789: First presidential election.
April 30, 1789: George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States in New York City.
December 15, 1791: The Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution) is ratified.
February 5-18, 1793: Chisholm v. Georgia is considered the first significant case with influence from the Supreme Court of the United States, paving the way for the 11th Amendment.
1791-1794: Whiskey Rebellion; protests occur in Western Pennsylvania against the new government’s taxes on a domestic product.
December 14, 1799: George Washington dies.
April 24, 1800: The Library of Congress is established.
February 17, 1801: Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr receive an equal number of votes in the Electoral College; the House of Representatives elects Jefferson as President (1801-1809), and Burr is elected Vice President.
March 4, 1801: Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated as the third President of the United States.
July 4, 1803: Louisiana Purchase: The United States acquires 2,144,476 square kilometers west of the Mississippi River from France, costing approximately 15 million dollars.
July 11, 1804: The duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton takes place in Weehawken (New Jersey). Hamilton dies.
March 2, 1807: The U.S. ends its slave trade with Africa; however, this does not affect the domestic slave trade.
June 18, 1812: Congress declares war on Great Britain, beginning the War of 1812 (also known as the Second War of Independence), which ends in 1814 with the Treaty of Ghent.
March 6, 1820: Congress approves the Missouri Compromise, which is intended to maintain a balance between free and slave states
July 4, 1826: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
March 4, 1829: Andrew Jackson becomes the seventh President of the United States.
1830s: The Oregon Trail is used by settlers traveling to the Pacific Northwest.
May 28, 1830: Indian Removal Act is passed, leading to the Trail of Tears in 1838. This law provides the legal basis for the removal of the Cherokee Nation from the southeastern U.S., resulting in over 4,000 deaths.
February 23 – March 6, 1836: The Battle of the Alamo, part of the Texas War of Independence.
July 1, 1839: Rebellion of African slaves on the Spanish ship La Amistad; in 1841, John Q. Adams represents the case before the Supreme Court, which rules in favor of the defendants on March 9, 1841.
April 24-26, 1846: The Mexican-American War begins, ending on May 30, 1848, with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
January 1848: Gold is discovered in California, leading to the California Gold Rush of 1849.
July 19-20, 1848: The Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention, takes place in Seneca Falls, New York.
May 29, 1851: Sojourner Truth delivers her impromptu speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” at the women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio, urging white suffragists to advocate for the rights of Black women as well.
March 6, 1857: The Supreme Court denies Dred Scott’s lawsuit and rules that slaves are property and have no more rights than other property. This decision is considered one of the key triggers of the American Civil War.
April 3, 1860: The Pony Express begins. The Pony Express was a mail service organized as a rider relay system that operated for 18 months before going bankrupt. The route ran from the Missouri River (Missouri) to Sacramento (California), reducing the mail delivery time between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to about 10 days (previously up to 6 months).
November 6, 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected as the sixteenth President of the United States.
February 4, 1861: Secessionist states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) form the Confederate States of America.
April 12, 1861: The Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston (South Carolina), which is still held by the Union, marking the beginning of the American Civil War.
July 2-4, 1863: Battle of Gettysburg; in one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles, Union forces force a Confederate army to surrender.
November 19, 1863: Gettysburg Address.
January 1865: The 13th Amendment is adopted, which legally prohibits slavery.
April 14, 1865: Abraham Lincoln is shot during a theater visit in Washington, D.C. He dies the following day.
May 9, 1865: The American Civil War ends.
October 18, 1867: The territory of Alaska is purchased from the Russian Empire.
May 16, 1868: The Senate votes 35-19 on the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, falling one vote short of the needed two-thirds majority.
July 9, 1868: The 14th Amendment is ratified, granting equal protection under the law to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.
June 6, 1872: Victoria Claflin Woodhull becomes the first female presidential candidate.
June 25, 1876: The Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana; the Lakota, Dakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes, led by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Chief Gall, Lame White Man, and Two Moons, defeat the 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by George A. Custer. The battle is also known as Custer’s Last Stand.
October 28, 1886: The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France and engraved with the date of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776), is dedicated.
December 29, 1890: The Wounded Knee Massacre occurs. The massacre takes place after an unsuccessful attempt to disarm a Lakota camp, resulting in the deaths of more than 200 people.
May 6, 1896: Plessy v. Ferguson. The Supreme Court rules that states are legally allowed to segregate public facilities under certain conditions if they are “equal” (“separate but equal”).
August 16, 1896: Klondike Gold Rush.
February 15, 1898: The battleship Maine explodes under mysterious circumstances in Havana Harbor, leading to a war with Spain.
December 17, 1903: Wilbur and Orville Wright complete their first successful flights in a “heavier-than-air machine” in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
April 6, 1917: The U.S. enters World War I.
November 11, 1918: World War I ends.
January 16, 1919: The 18th Amendment, which establishes Prohibition, goes into effect.
October 24, 1929: The U.S. stock market crashes, known as “Black Thursday.” The Great Depression begins.
March 31, 1931: The Star-Spangled Banner becomes the official national anthem of the United States.
1933-1938: The New Deal, a series of programs and reforms introduced in response to the Great Depression.
December 5, 1933: The 21st Amendment is ratified, ending Prohibition.
August 14, 1935: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, which establishes a public retirement system, among other provisions.
May 6, 1937: The Hindenburg disaster occurs; the explosion of the Zeppelin marks the end of the era of passenger airships.
December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor. U.S. forces are attacked by a Japanese fleet, leading to the entry of the United States into World War II.
June 6, 1944: D-Day. Allied forces land on the beaches of Normandy, France, marking a significant turning point in World War II.
February 19 – March 26, 1945: Battle of Iwo Jima.
March 26 – July 2, 1945: Battle of Okinawa.
May 8, 1945: World War II ends in Europe (Victory in Europe Day).
August 6, 1945: A U.S. aircraft drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
August 9, 1945: A U.S. aircraft drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.
March 12, 1947: The Truman Doctrine is announced, stating that America will support “free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” It leads to the formation of NATO in 1949.
April 3, 1947: The Marshall Plan is implemented.
1950-1954: The McCarthy Era begins, also known as the Second Red Scare, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy. This period is characterized by fears of communist influence on American institutions, alleged Soviet espionage, and increased political repression.
June 24, 1950: North Korean troops invade South Korea; within a week, American troops are involved in the fighting.
May 17, 1954: The Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools violate the 14th Amendment and are therefore unconstitutional.
November 1, 1955: The Vietnam War begins.
December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
April 17-20, 1961: The Bay of Pigs Invasion is a failed attempt by Cuban exiles, supported covertly by the U.S., to overthrow Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government. The failure of the invasion alters U.S.-Cuban relations.
October 16-29, 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis brings the U.S. and the USSR to the brink of direct nuclear confrontation.
August 23, 1963: March on Washington; Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech.
November 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
July 2, 1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ends legally enforced racial segregation.
April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
July 21, 1969: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon; the Apollo 11 mission lasts from July 16 to 24.
June 17, 1972: The Watergate scandal begins.
January 27, 1973: The Paris Peace Accords (officially: Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam) end the direct involvement of the U.S. in the Vietnam War, which concludes in 1975.
August 8, 1974: President Richard M. Nixon resigns due to the Watergate scandal.
November 8, 1980: Ronald Reagan is elected as the 40th President of the United States.
09. Nov. 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
January 16, 1991: Four months after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, U.S. and allied forces launch an airstrike against Iraq.
December 26, 1991: The Cold War ends.
April 19, 1995: The bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City occurs. This is the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history.
October 3, 1995: The trial of O.J. Simpson ends with an acquittal.
July 19 – August 4, 1996: The Summer Olympics are held in Atlanta. On July 27, 1996, a bombing occurs during the games, carried out by an activist from the Christian extremist group Army of God.
1998/1999: The Lewinsky scandal; President Bill Clinton is accused of having a sexual affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. The House of Representatives initiates impeachment proceedings, but Clinton is acquitted on all charges.
April 20, 1999: The Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado. Two senior students kill 13 students and teachers. At the time, it is the deadliest school shooting and becomes a model for future school shootings, leading to “Columbine” becoming a synonym for such events.
December 12, 2000: George W. Bush is confirmed as president by a Supreme Court ruling. Al Gore wins the nationwide popular vote but loses in the Electoral College.
September 11, 2001: Terrorists hijack planes and crash them into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing them to collapse. Additional planes crash into the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Over 3,000 people are killed, and more than 6,000 are injured.
October 7, 2001: Operation Enduring Freedom begins; a major military operation as part of the U.S.-declared War on Terror, involving the invasion of Afghanistan.
October 26, 2001: The USA PATRIOT Act is enacted to simplify federal investigations into terrorist threats.
November 25, 2002: The Department of Homeland Security is established.
March 20, 2003: Operation Iraqi Freedom begins; the U.S., along with the UK, Australia, and Poland, invades Iraq.
December 13, 2003: U.S. special forces capture Saddam Hussein.
August 25-30, 2005: Hurricane Katrina devastates the coastlines of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Approximately 1,836 people die, and Katrina causes around $108 billion in damage, making it the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
December 2007: The Great Recession begins in the U.S. (mortgage crisis and bursting of the housing bubble).
2009: The Tea Party movement protests for reduced government influence, fiscal responsibility, individual freedoms, and a conservative interpretation of the Constitution.
March 23, 2010: Obama signs the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the most significant overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system in 45 years.
April 20, 2010: The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the largest environmental disaster of its kind in history.
May 1, 2011: U.S. Navy SEALs kill Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda and mastermind of the September 11 attacks.
July 21, 2011: The Space Shuttle Atlantis returns from the ISS and lands at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It is the 135th and final mission of the program, which began in 1981.
December 14, 2012: A shooter kills 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
April 15, 2013: Two homemade bombs are detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people are killed and several hundred are injured.
June 26, 2015: Same-sex marriage is legally recognized in all 50 states.
July 20, 2015: Diplomatic relations with Cuba are resumed. The U.S. opens its embassy in Havana, and Cuba opens its embassy in Washington, D.C.
November 8, 2016: Donald J. Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States.
May 9, 2017: Trump dismisses FBI Director James Comey, initiating the Mueller investigation.
May 17, 2017 – March 22, 2019: The Special Counsel investigation (Mueller investigation) into the influence of foreign interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is conducted. It examines possible interference by the Russian government, connections between Trump’s associates and Russian officials, and possible obstruction of justice by Trump and his associates. It concludes with the Mueller Report.
August 12, 2017: At a right-wing extremist demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, which includes members of the Alt-Right, Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, white nationalists, and white supremacists, three deaths occur. This sparks a discussion on racism in modern American society.
September 20, 2017: Hurricane Maria hits Puerto Rico. More than 3,000 people die on the island due to the storm and its aftermath. Power is fully restored only after 11 months. Hurricane Maria is the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
October 1, 2017: A gunman opens fire during a concert on the Las Vegas Strip. 58 people are killed and 546 are injured. It is the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
October 15, 2017: The #MeToo Movement begins. Following widespread allegations against Harvey Weinstein for sexual harassment, assault, and rape, actress Alyssa Milano writes and reposts: “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘Me too’ in their status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.” The term “Me Too” was first used in 2006 by Tarana Burke to promote and support women of color who had been sexually abused.
February 14, 2018: A shooter kills 17 and injures 17 people at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
June 12, 2018: Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore.
October 29, 2018: 800 U.S. Army soldiers are deployed to the Mexican border to support border officials in preventing thousands of Central American migrants from entering the U.S. (Operation Faithful Patriot).
January 25, 2019: The longest government shutdown in U.S. history ends after 35 days (December 22, 2018 – January 25, 2019).
February 1, 2019: Trump announces the official U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty).
February 27, 2019: The second meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un takes place.
July 26, 2019: The Supreme Court rules that Trump should receive $2.5 billion for the construction of the border wall with Mexico.
August 12, 2019: An anonymous whistleblower files a complaint against Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, alleging they were seeking foreign interference in the 2020 presidential election. This complaint leads to the Ukraine scandal investigation.
September 24, 2019: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, announces that the House of Representatives is considering impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.
December 18, 2019: The House of Representatives charges President Trump with “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and impeachment proceedings begin.
December 20, 2019: President Trump signs the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, establishing the United States Space Force as the sixth military branch.
January 21, 2020: The first patient with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is diagnosed in the U.S.
February 5, 2020: The Senate votes to acquit Trump in the Ukraine scandal.
March 11, 2020: The World Health Organization officially declares COVID-19 a global pandemic.
May 25, 2020: George Floyd, an African American from Minneapolis, is killed during an arrest. This leads to nationwide and global protests and unrest. The police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 29 seconds is convicted on all three charges on April 20, 2021.
November 7, 2020: Four days after the presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden is elected the 46th President. Kamala Harris becomes the 49th Vice President, the first African American and Asian American woman in this role.
January 6, 2021: Supporters of Trump storm the Capitol in Washington, D.C., disrupting the certification of the Electoral College votes confirming Biden’s victory. The Capitol is evacuated, over 140 people are injured, and five people die as a result.
January 13, 2021: Trump is the only president to face a second impeachment trial. Ten Republicans join Democrats in voting for impeachment. Trump is acquitted a month later.
January 20, 2021: Joseph R. Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States.
February 15, 2021: Winter storms cause widespread power outages in Texas, leading to the loss of heat, electricity, and water. Millions of Texans are affected, and over 200 people die.
February 19, 2021: The United States officially re-joins the Paris Climate Agreement.
March 16 and 22, 2021: Two mass shootings occur within a week – on March 16 at three spas in the Atlanta area and at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.
May 17, 2021: The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which concerns abortion rights in Mississippi.
June 17, 2021: President Biden signs a law making Juneteenth a federal holiday.
June 23, 2021: The record heatwave of June 2021 impacts the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.
August 29, 2021: Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 storm, causes power outages for a million people in Louisiana and Mississippi. More than 80 people are killed. Louisiana reports at least 28 deaths, with at least 50 more fatalities in six eastern states.
August 30, 2021: U.S. forces complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending nearly 20 years of war.
September 1, 2021: The Heartbeat Act is introduced in Texas, banning abortions after nine weeks of pregnancy.
September 23, 2021: The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot issues its first subpoenas, demanding documents and testimony from four of former President Trump’s advisors and staff.
January 3, 2022: Daily COVID-19 infections in the U.S. exceed one million for the first time, with a total of 1.08 million cases, primarily due to the Omicron variant.
January 4, 2022: Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO of Silicon Valley company Theranos and once the youngest self-made billionaire, is found guilty on four counts of fraud against investors.
February 24, 2022: Three former police officers involved in George Floyd’s killing (J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao) are found guilty of civil rights violations by a federal jury.
February 25, 2022: President Biden imposes additional sanctions on Russia and condemns President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, escalating the Russian-Ukrainian conflict that began in 2014.
