Columbus reaches the Americas: 1492
Jamestown founded: 1607
Pilgrims land at Plymouth: 1620
First enslaved Africans arrive in Virginia: 1619
Salem witch trials: 1692
French and Indian War begins: 1754
Stamp Act: 1765
Boston Massacre: 1770
Boston Tea Party: 1773
Battles of Lexington and Concord: 1775
Declaration of Independence adopted: July 4, 1776
Battle of Saratoga: 1777
Winter at Valley Forge: 1777-1778
British surrender at Yorktown: 1781
Treaty of Paris ends the Revolution: 1783
Constitutional Convention: 1787
George Washington becomes president: 1789
Bill of Rights ratified: 1791
Louisiana Purchase: 1803
Lewis and Clark expedition: 1804-1806
War of 1812 begins: 1812
Star-Spangled Banner written: 1814
Missouri Compromise: 1820
Monroe Doctrine: 1823
Erie Canal opens: 1825
Indian Removal Act: 1830
Battle of the Alamo: 1836
Seneca Falls Convention: 1848
California Gold Rush begins: 1848
Mexican-American War ends: 1848
Compromise of 1850: 1850
Dred Scott decision: 1857
Lincoln elected president: 1860
Fort Sumter attacked: 1861
Emancipation Proclamation: 1863
Battle of Gettysburg: 1863
Lee surrenders at Appomattox: 1865
Lincoln assassinated: 1865
13th Amendment ratified: 1865
Alaska purchased from Russia: 1867
Transcontinental railroad completed: 1869
Telephone patented: 1876
Battle of Little Bighorn: 1876
Light bulb perfected by Edison: 1879
Statue of Liberty dedicated: 1886
Ellis Island opens: 1892
Plessy v. Ferguson: 1896
Spanish-American War: 1898
Wright brothers' first flight: 1903
World War I begins in Europe: 1914
US enters World War I: 1917
19th Amendment (women's suffrage): 1920
Stock market crash: 1929
Franklin Roosevelt elected; New Deal begins: 1932-1933
Social Security Act: 1935
Pearl Harbor attacked: December 7, 1941
D-Day: June 6, 1944
World War II ends: 1945
Marshall Plan: 1948
Korean War begins: 1950
Brown v. Board of Education: 1954
Montgomery Bus Boycott: 1955-1956
Sputnik launched: 1957
Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962
March on Washington: 1963
JFK assassinated: 1963
Civil Rights Act: 1964
Voting Rights Act: 1965
Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated: 1968
First Moon landing: 1969
Nixon resigns: 1974
Fall of Saigon: 1975
Berlin Wall falls: 1989
Soviet Union dissolves: 1991
September 11 attacks: 2001
Barack Obama elected: 2008

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