HISTORY OF THE U.S. part I
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HISTORY OF THE U.S. part I,
United States
Tuesday, July 4, 1972
HISTORY OF THE U.S.
35,000 BCE The first people to discover America, and later become known as Native Americans, crossed a land bridge known as Beringia from Siberia into Alaska. These were
the first Americans.
8,000 BCE People that had crossed Beringia had spread from the Arctic tip of America to the southern tip of South America.
5,000 BCE People in what is now known as Mexico experimented with seeds and became the first to farm.
1,000 BCE The Mayas lived in small villages in what is today Mexico and Guatemala.
300 BCE People of modern day Mexico came to America and brought their farming knowledge.
A culture known as Hohokam established itself as the 1st agricultural communit along the Gila and Salt Rivers in present day Arizona.
The Mogollons began to flourish for the next 1500 years as a culture that lived in pit dwellings insulated by mud and reeds and were artistic and expert at basket weaving.
100 BCE The Anasazi culture begins from the ancestors of Pueblo Indians and their culture evolves over the next 1400 from basket makers to Pueblo with unique
architecture and finally a Golden Age of advanced irrigation and production of
turquoise jewelry.
250 The Mayas began building large cities.
300 North Americans invent the bow and arrow and begin living on the Plains and migrate with the seasons.
690 A woodland farming people known as the Mississippians began building villages that
became the center of government, trade and religion. They were surrounded by
farms.
800 The Pueblo culture emerges. Many live at Mesa Verde, Colorado.
900 The Anasazi build cities at the Four Corners.
980 Viking Eric the Red discovered a land that he named Greenland in order to attract settlers.
986 Norseman Bjarni Herjolfsson was the first European to sight North America.
1000 Norse captain Leif Eriksson reaches North America and establishes the colony of Vinland.
The Mayas abandoned their cities.
1100-1500 The Incan empire stretched 2,000 miles along the Andes with Cuzco as the capital.
1390 The Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes of upstate new York formed a League of the Iroquois. All these tribes spoke Iroquois and migrated from the south.
August 1492 Columbus led a crew of 90 men from Spain in the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.
October 12, 1492 Columbus sights land and discovers an island in the Caribbean which he names San Salvador. Columbus will die in 1506 believing that he found Asia, but his
courage encouraged others to cross the Atlantic.
1494 Supervised by Pope Alexander VI, the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed indicating an
imaginary line 1,000 miles from the Cape Verde Islands giving Spain exclusive rights to all new territories to the west and Portugal receiving rights to the east.
1496 British sailor John Cabot reached Newfoundland and allowed Britain its foothold in
America He returned to England to share his stories in 1497.
1500 The Aztec empire of over 12 million people covered half of Mexico.
1504 Letters sent from Italian sailor Amerigo Vespucci brag of four voyages in what he called the "New World". It is believed that the land he had discovered was still attached to Asia and it was named "America" in his honor.
1513 France's Ponce de Leon becomes the first European ever to stand on what would become the United States when he founded and named Florida. Hostility of the inhabitants
prevented him from establishing a settlement there.
Spain's Vasco Balboa led the 1st European expedition to see the Pacific Ocean from the west coast of the new World.
1519 Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes led 500 soldiers and Indians to Mexico to conquer the Aztec empire. Two years later he had conquered Tenochtitlan and became Governor of New Spain.
1520 Hiawatha urges the five neighboring tribes of Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca to join together into the Iroquis League.
1524 King Francis I of France sent Italain explorer Giovanni da Verrazano to lead an
an expedition to find a Northwest Passage.
1529 The name "Gallia Nova" (Latin for New France) first appears on a map.
1533 Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incan empire. He found gold and silver to make Spain rich.
1534 King Francis I of France sent Jacques Cartier to find a Northwest Passage. He took formal possession of New France.
1535 Jacques Cartier made a 2nd voyage and discovered a new land they named "Canada".
1539 De Soto explores Florida with 600 men. They later crossed the Appalachians.
1540 The Grand Canyon is discovered.
1541 De Soto discovers the Mississippi River. The Spanish bring smallpox that wipes out
the Mississippians.
Coronado discovers from New Mexico to Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
1562 French explorer Jean Ribault encounters the Timucan Indians under Chief Saturiwa. The Timucans had led a life and culture in northeast Florida for over 1000 years.
1564 French settlement of La Caroline.
1565 St. Augustine is founded by Spain's Pedro Menandez and 1,500 men.
.
1577 After stealing riches from numerous Spanish colonies, English explorer Francis Drake
escaped pursuing Spanish warships by sailing south around the tip of South America,
stopped in San Francisco Bay to claim the land for England, and then continued sailing west across the Pacific to become the second ship to sail around the world. Drake made England rich from stolen Spanish treasure.
1570 Leaders from the five groups of Iroquois joined together in the Iroquois League. The League was led by a council of 50 leaders chosen by the women of each group. The
Iroquois became the most powerful Eastern Woodland people.
1584 Sir Walter Raleigh inherited a royal patent to set up a company in North America.
1585 Raleigh led 108 men and sailed to the Carolinas and set up a fort at Roanoke Island.
1586 Sir Francis Drake found the Roanoke colonists starving and wishing to return to England.
1587 Raleigh sends 107 new men, women and children to Roanoke.
1588 England's navy destroys the Spanish Armada and annihilates the possibility for the
Spanish occupying what could have been Los Estados Unidos.
Queen Elizabeth I became queen of England and was determined for English
exploration across the Atlantic.
1590 The settlement at Roanoke had vanished.
1598 The southwest's first Spanish settlement was established when Don Juan de Onate was chosen to colonize the upper Rio Grande. He declared Spanish sovereignty over "all the lands, pueblos, cities, and villas in the province of New Mexico," an area from Texas to
California.
1600's Horses appear on the Plains after they were brought over by Spanish explorers.
1600 England granted two companies the right to establish colonies in the part of America
known as "Virginia". King James I declared this area between latitudes 34 and 45 degrees north to be solely for England.
Spain controlled 2/3 of the Western Hemisphere.
1602 The Dutch East India Company is formed by the government of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.
1604 Fur trader Samuel de Champlain led his crew to Port Royal, Nova Scotia (today known as Annapolis Royal) to establish the first formal colony of New France.
April 10, 1606 A charter was issued to the London Company (South Virginia Group) to
establish a colony in the area between 34 and 41 degrees north. The Plymouth Company (North Virginia Group) could settle between 38 and 43 degrees north.
Neither company could come between 100 miles of the other. The companies
could mint their own money, but couldn't trade with foreign nations, they could
expel interlopers, and share 1/5 of discoveries of precious metals with the Crown.
August 1606 The Plymouth Company was the first to send colonists, but its ship was blown off course and captured by the Spanish.
December 20, 1606 Captain John Newport (London Company) leads 104 colonists aboard the Susan, Constant, Discovery and Godspeed to North America.
May 1607 The 104 colonists reach the Chesapeake Bay and found Jamestown, the first
permanent English settlement in the New World. Disease, lack of food and dissention plagued the colonists. John Smith saved the colony be leading them like an army to build and plant. He also made negotiations with the Powhatan to help the colony.
The Plymouth Company sends 120 colonists on two ships and creates a settlement at Sagadahoc on the coast of Maine. They build a fort, storehouse and church, but one year later they refuse to stay.
October 1608 Only 35 colonists survived the winter. In spring more colonists were shipped over and again more in October. They were to continue searching for gold and a
Northwest Passage.
1608 Geographer Samuel de Champlain was chosen to start the colony of New France.
Champlain (Father of New France) built trading posts later named Quebec and
Montreal.
Jamestown's leader, John Smith, is taken prisoner by Pocahontas's uncle, Opechancanough
A group of Puritans displeased with the Church of England splinter off and become
known as Separatists and move to Leiden, Holland. Eventually this group would make up half of the members aboard the Mayflower.
May 1609 England grants a new charter for an enlarged territory to establish settlements.
The royal council is abolished and replaced by stockholders that will allow the
companies controlling the new colonies to create its own laws and regulations.
October 1609 A relief fleet of nine ships never arrives at Jamestown and leaves them in a
"starving time".
1609 English captain Henry Hudson made an expedition for the Netherlands in which he
explored the New York Harbor and a river now bearing his name.
Stephen Hopkins sailed on The Sea Venture to Virginia, but was shipwrecked in Bermuda. This story became the basis for Shakespeare's story The Tempest.
Champlain and the French helped the Huron to defeat the Iroquois.
Santa Fe is the 1st permanent Spanish settlement in the Southwest.
June 1610 Only 60 survivors remain in Jamestown, but are deterred from quitting when Lord De La Warr arrives as the new governor and with news of the company's new charter.
1611-1613 Sir Thomas Gates is governor of Jamestown and drafted a code of laws.
1612 Jamestown colonist John Rolfe introduces tobacco as a new means to earning money.
1613 Pocahontas is captured during a raid.
1614 The first shipment of tobacco is sent to England
John Rolfe marries Pocahontas.
1616 Jamestown was divided into four boroughs: Charles City, Jamestown, Henrico, and Kiccowatan.
The Virginia Headright provided 50 acres of land to all that arrived at their own expense.
1619 First meeting of the Virginia House of Burgesses is held by new governor George Yeardley. The new assembly would have a governor, council and 2 burgesses from every 100 and would meet once a year to enact measures for the good of the colony.
The Virginia Company begins sending women to Jamestown.
September 16, 1620 The Plymouth Company finally finds success. The Pilgrims were supposed to send two ships, but the Speedwell developed leaks. They sent the
Mayflower with a crew of 102 that included many women and children too.
It was learned later that the 2nd ship, the Speedwell. Had been sabotaged by its master, Mr. Reynolds. He later refit the vessel and used it for profit on
many future trips.sailing, the Pilgrims entered into a deal with merchant Thomas
Weston. Together they entered a joint stock company with the Merchant
Adventurers that at 1st seemed would support the religious goals of the
Pilgrims in a deal in which the Pilgrims would each receive a share in the
company valued at 10 pounds and in return would work 4 days a week for
the next 7 years while getting 2 days a week to work for themselves.
Weston later revealed himself with bad intentions when the Pilgrims were
forced into a deal to work all days for the company. Even worse, some
non-Separatists would be added to the mix.
November 11, 1620 Before leaving the Mayflower, the Pilgrims signed a declaration of intent known as the Mayflower Compact. John Carver was chosen as the
Governor for the year.
December 25, 1620 The Pilgrims began to erect their first dwellings. They name their colony Plymouth in honor of the city they sailed from in England.
November 1621 The Pilgrims celebrated their truce with the Wampanoag nation with a feast of turkeys and their harvest of crops.
1621 King James I announced that all tobacco must first be carried to England to pay customs.
March 22, 1622 The Powhatan attacked and killed 350 of the 1,400 colonists
1624 The Dutch West India Company establishes New Netherland.
Fewer than 1,500 colonists were still alive in Jamestown.
May 1624 The Virginia Company had been dissolved.
For the next decade, 3 times a year colonists went to kill the Savages and steal crops.
March 1625 King James I dies and new successor King Charles I decided that Virginia would now be administered by a governor and council that would answer to the king.
Dutch settlers set up a post on Manhattan Island called New Amsterdam. They built a fort, church and residence for the governor.
1626 Willem Verhulst and Peter Minuit of the Netherlands purchase Manhattan Island from the Manhattan Indians for 60 guilders, and establish New Amsterdam, the 3rd established colony
The settlement of Naumkeag (later Salem) is founded.
1627 Quebec has a population of less than 100 people even after being established 20 years ago.
1628 War breaks out between France and England.
March 4, 1629 A patent like a joint stock company is secured known as "The Company of Massachussetts Bay" with title to all lands between Merrimack River and the tip of Massachussetts Bay for the Puritans. John Winthrop was chosen to lead the
new Massachusetts Bay Colony. They sent 1,000 colonists on 17 ships to New
England. By 1642, they had sent 20,000 immigrants.
1629 Naumkeag, later named Salem, is founded to accept 1st wave of 1,000 Puritan settlers.
August 26, 1629 John Winthrop and his group bought out the rights of the charter to establish the headquarters in America rather than in England.
April 1630 John Endecott leads 200 additional settlers to join the already 80 at Salem.
March 1630 The Puritans establish Boston. By the end of the year there are 10 other settlements.
1630-1640 More famous families such as the Washingtons arrived and had the advantage of learning from the mistakes of past colonists.
Over 20,000 Puritans sail to New England.
June 20, 1632 The first Lord Baltimore, in search of expanding his estates, receives a charter for a grant of territory in the upper Chesapeake to be called Maryland (in honor of
the queen).
1634 The colony of Maryland is settled by the second Lord Baltimore.
A post was set up by the Dutch on Manhattan Island called New Amsterdam.
1635 The assembly created 8 English-style counties with justices, sheriff, recorder and constables.
Massachusetts expels Roger Williams. He establishes the new community of
Providence.
Several groups migrate to the Connecticut River Valley.
1636 Plymouth establishes a formal constitution.
Harvard College is established to train for the ministry.
Sweden's King Augustus Adolphus chartered a general company for America.
Thomas Hooker leads 100 followers to the Connecticut River Valley to establish
the colony of Connecticut.
1637 The Plymouth colony reaches a population of 550.
King Charles I announced he would govern Massachusetts just as he did with Virginia via a governor and councilor.
The first group from Sweden arrives in the Delaware region.
The Pequots are eliminated in the Pequot War.
1638 Anne Hutchinson establishes Portsmouth on the island of Aquidneck in Narragansett
Bay.
Over the next 2 years, 30,000 deaths in the pueblos occurred from smallpox, measles and other diseases.
January 1639 Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield sign the Fundamental Orders as a frame of Government for Connecticut.
1640 Population of the Jamestown Peninsula reached 8,000.
1641 There are 21 towns in Massachusetts.
1643 A formal alliance was signed for the Confederation of the United Colonies of England by Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut.
Massachusetts creates a county system with the 1st four being Suffolk, Middlesex, Essex and Norfolk.
With the establishment of Providence by Williams and Portsmouth by Hutchinson, the settlement of Rhode Island was completed when Samuel Gompers formed the town of Warwick. Rhode Island's outcasts were not asked to join the New England confederation.
Johan Printz arrives with 100 new colonists for New Sweden.
March 24, 1644 Roger Williams secured a patent for Rhode Island to have full power and
authority for self rule.
1644-1646 The Virginia colonists went to war with the Indians. The result was the destruction of the Powhatan Confederacy, the banning of American Indians from the Jamestown Penninsula, and the Indians being forced to acknowledge the king of England.
1646 Peter Stuyvesant is appointed director general of New Netherland.
European iron makers brought their skills to the Massachusetts colony, like Saugus.
1647 Massachusetts ensures that the population receives education by requiring all towns with 50 households to appoint someone to teach children to read and write.
There are 33 towns in Massachusetts.
1648 Massachusetts law stated that any youngster who struck or cursed a parent would be put to death. Play for kids at this time was not an acceptable concept.
1649 King Charles I is executed.
1650 A treaty was signed between Peter Stuyvesant and the New England Confederacy to create a boundary between New Netherland and Massachusetts at Long Island.
1651 In an attempt to harm the Dutch, the first navigation Act of England stated that goods from other nations could only be brought to English territory, including the colonies, in English
ships with mainly English crews.
1654 England and the Netherlands go to war.
1655 Swedish settlements (they had been the first to settle in today's Pennsylvania) were taken by the Dutch of New Netherland when they captured Fort Casimir.
1656 The Quakers first arrive in America.
October 1660 England's new Navigation Act states that only vessels owned and ¾ manned by Englishmen would be permitted to enter colonial ports.
1660 Population of Virginia had 250,000 inhabitants, Maryland 10,000 and North Carolina
had a few hundred
1663 England's new Navigation Act requires all foreign goods headed for plantations to be
shipped via England first for taxing to ensure that no other country could have a
competitive advantage.
March 24, 1663 A grant is given for the Carolinas to 8 men to be the "Absolute Proprietors of The Country". They could sell or lease land, create titles and manors, make war in their defense, and they were empowered to make all laws and raise taxes.
1664 English King Charles II grants his younger brother, James duke of York a charter that
included all of New Netherland to Delaware Bay as well as Maine, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
March 12, 1664 A charter is issued to King Charles II's brother, James, Duke of York. He was granted a charter to the area between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers.
August 18, 1664 An English fleet of 400 troops arrive in New Amsterdam and join with New Englanders to fight the Dutch.
September 7, 1664 Peter Stuyvesant surrenders New Netherland to the English forces, and it is renamed New York in honor of the duke.
James gave part of his colony to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret and they started the colony of New Jersey.
1670 American whaling begins as a commercial enterprise.
1671 French explorer Simon Francois claimed the interior of North America for New France. Over the next 5 years the French population rose to 8,500.
October 2, 1672 Construction begins on the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine.
1675 Massasoit, who had helped the Pilgrims in 1620 now had a son named Metacom, known as King Philip, that led the New England Indians, Wampanoag, and Narragansett in a battle for survival in King Philp's War. A year later the natives lost and Metacom was killed.
1680 New Hampshire is declared a royal province.
April 2, 1681 English King Charles II granted William Penn land in North America as a "Holy Experiment" and officially creates Pennsylvania with Penn as sole proprietor. He is
permitted to grant lands to whomever he wants.
1682 French explorer Robert La Salle led an expedition down the Mississippi River claiming it all for France. He named in Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV
Numerous Quakers leave England on 50 ships to settle in Pennsylvania. William Penn did not have the financial resources to fund the land so he had sold various holdings of ten thousand acres each. Penn also granted the Quakers waterfront sites and reserved seats
on the governing council.
Philadelphia is founded by William Penn.
December 1682 A bill was passed in Pennsylvania confirming religious tolerance. All freemen declaring that Jesus Christ is the son of God would be permitted to hold office.
October 1683 The first assembly in the history of New York met and issue Charter of Liberties.
February 1685 King Charles II dies and his brother James Duke of York becomes King James II.
James II reorganized his North American possessions by combining Plymouth,
New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine into one colony called the
Dominion of New England.
1686 New York City became the first colony to receive a royal charter with a royal governor, council and assembly.
June 1686 Sir Edmund Andros is named as governor in chief of the Dominion of New England. He was given all power to make laws and raise taxes.
1688 William III invades England and initiates the Glorious Revolution. By November, he forces James II to flee. The Revolution was crucial to the colonies. In the past they were subject to arbitrary and inconsistent rule by the Stuart monarchs who believed themselves above the law. New laws were passed for the colonies allowing for prosecution of governors that abused their power.
1689 A religious schism formed in Penssylvania when George Keith arrived and declared that the Quakers had lost their purity.
Philadelphia's 1st educational institution was the Friends' School, founded by the Quakers.
There is a population of 15,000 in New France.
1690 The Massachusetts Bay colony issues the 1st paper money in the colonies.
1691 Boston's court passed an ordinance requiring all buildings to be built of brick due to
recent fires.
October 1691 Massachusetts was issued a new charter and would have a royal governor
appointed by the Crown. The governor could veto any legislation.
1692 The Salem witchcraft trials take place in Massachusetts.
1696 All colonial governors to be held responsible for enforcing the Navigation Acts.
1699 The French establish a Louisianna colony at Biloxi.
The capital of Virginia moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg.
1700 France's Canadian-born Pierre le Moyne recovered Acadia, secured Newfoundland,
mostly expelled the Brittish from the Hudson Bay, and established settlements in
Louisiana.
There are more than 250,000 English colonists.
The Anglo population in the English colonies is 275,000 (Boston 7,000 & NY 5,000).
1701 England, Austria and Netherlands form a grand Alliance and go to war against Spain and France in the War of Spanish Succession.
Yale was founded to produce ministers of a more orthodox stance.
November 1701 William Penn permitted three Delaware counties to separate from Pennsylvania.
April 1704 The Boston News-Letter, the 1st enduring newspaper, is published.
1704 Boston completed the first sewer.
January 17, 1706 Benjamin Franklin is born in Boston.
1710 English Parliament passes the Post Office Act to start postal system in the American colony controlled by the postmaster general of London and his deputy in New York City.
1712 The Carolina colony is officially split into North and South.
In Nantucket, the 1st sperm whale is captured at sea by an American.
1713 The Treaty of Utrecht forced France to give up Acadia and the Hudson Bay and was mostly confined to Newfoundland. The Treaty benefited colonists by opening up the frontier.
Boston's Old State House is built and used to sign Massachusetts constitution. A century later it was a Merchant's Exchange and John Hancock lived in the basement.
1710 King George I of England succeeds Queen Anne.
Tea is 1st introduced to the American colonies.
1716 Todays oldest wood school house was used in St. Augustine.
The 1st group of black slaves is brought to Louisiana.
1718 The French founded New Orleans and it became a thriving seaport and trading post.
1720 Population of the American colonies reaches 475,000 (Boston 12,000 and Philly 10,000)
1725 Population of black slaves in American colonies reaches 75,000.
1727 King George II ascends to the throne of England.
1729 The proprietary rights of the Carolinas are surrendered, and King George II took over the
land and divided it into two territories-North Carolina and South Carolina.
Ben Franklin begins publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette.
1731 Benjamin Franklin started the first public library in Philadelphia.
February 2, 1732 George Washington is born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
1732 Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard's Almanac.
King George II granted James Oglethorpe land to being the colony of Georgia. It was started as a place to send England's debtors to work off their debts.
1734 John Peter Zenger printed a story in the New York Weekly Journal that criticized New York Governor William Cosby of being dishonest. Cosby put Zenger in jail, but a trial set him free and helped establish the freedom of the press.
1736 Fort Frederica was built to defend the colony of Georgia from Spanish attack.
1737 The 1st colonial copper coins are minted in Connecticut.
1739 England declares war on Spain.
1740 Fort Matanzas was built to protect St. Augustine's southern river approach.
An 8 year war known in the colonies as King George's War begins when France and Spain become allies against England.
1741 Russian traders arrive in Alaska and over the next 80 years the native population falls from18,000 to 1,500.
1747 The Ohio Company of Virginia, organized by Thomas Lee, earned a grant for 500,000 acres and the royal charter stated that the company had to build a fort and settle 100 families within 2 years on the forks of the Ohio. Christopher Gist was sent to explore.
1751 The Currency Act is passed in England banning paper money being issued by the colonies.
July 1752 George Washington inherits the family tobacco plant at Mount Vernon when his
brother Lawrence died.
1752 King George II took control of Georgia and gave colonists more land and let them plant what they wanted. This allowed the colony to flourish.
1753 The Liberty Bell was constructed. It rang above Independence Hall. It would later ring to announce the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.
1754 The French and Indian War begins. George Washington leads a victory over the French & builds Fort Necessity in May before losing it to the French in July.
There is a population of 85,000 In New France.
1755 A group of 900 French and Indians defeat 2000 British soldiers and George Washington.
New Bedford, Massachusetts became the whaling center of the colonies and later of the world. Whale blubber was turned into candles, used in lamps and for tanning leather. The meat was stored for winter use. The skin was used to make sacks. The bones were carved into combs.
1756 England declares war on France as the French & Indian War spreads to Europe.
1758 The 1st Indian reservation is founded in New Jersey.
1760 Population in the colonies reaches 1,500,000.
British North America produces eighty million pounds of tobacco - 45% of mainland colonial exports. The value of the exported crop was 700,000 British pounds.
Population of Virginia had 350,000 inhabitants, Maryland 160,000 North Carolina
had 120,000, and Pennsylvania had 300,000.
Population of Philadelphia had 23,000 inhabitants, New York had 18,000, Boston had 16,000, Charleston 8,000, and Newport had 7,500.
Rice accounted for 20% of colonial commodity exports raising 300,000 pounds.
Over the last 42 years, British Parliament has sent 30,000 convicts to America. They worked in gangs like slaves serving sentences between 7-14 years.
This was the 1st year that girls could attend grammar school or college.
A number of factories had been established for pottery, glass and paper.
March - Boston is destroyed by a raging fire.
September - Quebec surrenders the English.
October - King George III ascends to the throne of England
1763 The French and Indian War ends in victory for Britain.
The Treaty of Paris erases the name of New France from the map. Britain claimed all Frenchland east of the Mississippi River including Canada and the Ohio River Valley. Spain
claimed all of French Louisiana west of the Mississippi.
An Ottawa chief named Pontiac led numerous Indian groups in a revolt against the British.King George III issued a proclamation for peace granting all land west of the Appalachiansfor the Indians.
King George III signs the Proclamation of 1763 forbidding new colonies west of the
Appalachians and anyone already there must move back in an attempt to ease tensions with the Native Americans.
1765 In an effort to get the colonies to pay their share of defending North America, Parliamentpassed the Stamp Act. This law put a tax on all kinds of documents such as newspapers, calendars and legal papers. Cries of "No taxation without representation" rang out from the colonies.
The Quartering Act requires colonists to house and feed British soldiers. '
The Sons of Liberty is formed.
A Stamp Act Congress meets in New York with representatives from 9 colonies to send a petition of repeal of the Stamp Act to King George III.
1766 Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, but then passes the Declaratory Act stating that the
English Parliament has full power to legislate any laws concerning the colonies.
1767 Parliament member Charles Townshend passed the Townshend Acts to tax many goods brought into the colonies from Britain such as glass, paper, tea and paint.
1768 British troops were sent to Boston to keep order.
1769 Missions are established in California from San Diego to California.
1770 The population of the American colonies reaches 2,210,000.
March 5, 1770 Crispus Attucks led the Boston colonists in throwing rocks and snowballs at the soldiers. Attucks was the first of five to be killed in what newspapers called the
"Boston Massacre".
December 1773 After 3 years of the colonists boycotting taxed tea, Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty dressed as Indians and dumped 342 chests of tea from 3 ships into the
Boston Harbor.
April 1774 British Parliament enacts five laws in response to the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Port Act closed the harbor until the colonies paid the East India Company for the tea
thrown overboard. The Quartering Act allowed colonial officials to lodge British
troops in private homes. The Massachusetts Government Act suspended democracy in
the colonies as the council would now be appointed rather than elected and towns
could only hold one meeting per year.
1774 Every colony except Pennsylvania had a Committee of Correspondence that sent letters tocolonists in other places so they could be informed about important events.
September 1774 Representatives from every colony except Georgia met together in Philadelphia at the First Continental Congress. They voted to cut off all trade with Britain
until the Intolerable Acts were repealed.
1775 Daniel Boone negotiated with the Cherokee on behalf of a land owner to buy parts of
Kentucky. Boone then led 30 men to build a road known as the Wilderness Road. The road was used by many pioneers.
American colonists issue paper money for the Continental Congress to finance the
Revolutionary War.
April 18, 1775 Paul Revere rides with Billy Dawes and Samuel Prescott to warn Boston that the British are coming.
700 British troops march on Concord, Massachusetts. They encounter colonial Minutemen and one of them fired the unordered "shot heard 'round the world."
After the battles at Lexington and Concord, the British army stayed in Boston.
May 10, 1775 At the Second Continental Congress, John Adams asks Congress to form a grand army with soldiers from every colony.
June 15, 1775 The Second Continental Congress decides to raise an army and appoints George Washington to lead it.
June 17, 1775 Over 1,100 British are wounded or killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
July 1775 George Washington takes command of the troops camped around Boston.
January 1776 Tom Paine publishes the pamphlet Common Sense that argues for independence.
March 4, 1776 Rebel forces capture Dorchester Heights and use stolen cannons to force the British from Boston.
May 1776 King Louis XVI of France secretly provides arms and munitions to America.
June 11, 1776 Congress assigns a committee to compose a declaration for independence.
Thomas Jefferson was asked to be the author of the Declaration of Independence.
July 2, 1776 British General Sir William Howe lands an army of 32,000 plus 9,000 German Mercenaries on Staten Island.
July 4, 1776 The Declaration of Independence is formally adopted by Congress, and the 13 colonies became the United States of America. Now they were fighting to
overthrow British rule and form a new nation.
July 9, 1776 New York City was captured by the British in the Battle of Long Island and
established as the British military headquarters. The British bring 30,000 troops to
New York Harbor.
August 27, 1776 In the Battle of Long Island, Howe forces Washington to retreat and give upTerritory from Brooklyn Heights to Manhattan.
September 1776 Washington evacuates New York.
September 20, 1776 A great fire raged in New York.
September 22, 1776 Nathan Hale is captured by the British and bravely calls out "I only regret I have but one life to give for my country," as he is hung without trial.
November 1776 Howe continues to defeat Washington in battles, but fails to pursue his army enough to crush them. Washington moves toward Pennsylvania.
December 25, 1776 Washington leads a surprise Christmas Day attack across the Delaware for a successful attack on Trenton and encourages thousands of colonists to
volunteer in the army.
June 4, 1777 The Continental Congress adopts a national flag.
July 27, 1777 The Marquis de Lafayette, a 21 year-old French nobleman, arrives to volunteer his services to the American Revolution.
September 11, 1777 Howe forces Washington's army to retreat toward Philadelphia after the Battle of Brandywine. Congress must flee.
September 26, 1777 Howe occupies Philadelphia.
October 7-17, 1777 The British are defeated and 5,7000 soldiers are forced to surrender at the Second Battle of Saratoga. This encourages Europe to send support and
to declare formal recognition of American independence
November 15, 1777 Congress agrees to the Articles of Confederation.
December 17, 1777 Washington's Continental Army enters its winter quarters at Valley Forge.
1778 The 1st peace treaty was signed between the U.S. and an Indian tribe, the Delaware Indians,at Fort Pitt.
February 23, 1778 The Prussian Baron von Steuben arrives to assist in drilling the soldiers and by the end of the winter he has the army in perfect fighting form.
May 8, 1778 General Howe is replaced as the commander in America by Henry Clinton.
July 8, 1778 West Point becomes the Continental Army headquarters.
July 9, 1778 Congress signs the Articles of Confederation.
July 10, 1778 France declares war against Britain.
December 29, 1778 The British capture Savannah, Georgia.
January 29, 1779 The British capture Augusta, Georgia.
May 10, 1779 The British capture and burn Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia.
August 19, 1779 American General Henry Lee captures Paulus Hook, New Jersey.
September 27, 1779 John Adams is appointed by Congress to negotiate peace with England.
January 28, 1780 A fort established on the Cumberland River will later be named Nashville.
May 6, 1780 The British capture Fort Moultrie and Charleston and capture 5,400 Americans.
August 3, 1780 American Benedict Arnold is appointed commander at West Point, but he
secret ly communicates Washington's movements to British commander Clinton.
September 23, 1780 Benedict Arnold flees to a British ship and becomes a brigadier general.
1781 The Continental Congress chartered the Bank of North America in Philadelphia as the nation's first real bank.
March 1, 1781 The Articles of Confederation are implemented. The country would be run by a Congress, but most power would remain with the states.
October 19, 1781 British General Cornwallis and 8,000 troops surrender at Battle of Yorktown.
British hopes of victory in America come to an end.
January 1, 1782 British loyalists flee to Nova S
February 27, 1782 The British House of Commons votes against further war with America.
British prime minister Lord North resigns and is replaced by Lord
Rockingham who seeks immediate peace negotiations with America.
November 10, 1782 The last battle of the Revolutionary War is fought as Americans put down Indian and Loyalists in a Shawnee Indian village in Ohio.
February 3, 1783 Spain, Russia, Sweden and Denmark recognize the United States of America.
April 11, 1783 Congress declares a formal end to the Revolutionary War.
September 3. 1783 The war officially ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
1784 The Treaty of Fort Stanwix forced the Iroquois Six Nations to cede all their land in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky for siding with the British during the Revolution.
January 11, 1785 The U.S. Capital is temporarily in New York City.
1786 Daniel Shays led the Shays Rebellion by leading farmers in a riot to protest the courts from jailing debtors and seizing their land. The rebellion lasted almost one year.
August 8, 1786 Congress adopts a monetary system similar to the Spanish dollar with a gold Piece valued at $10, silver pieces at $1, and 1/10 dollar in silver/copper pennies.
September 1786 Only five states sent delegates to write a new constitution to correct the flawsof the Articles of Confederation.
October 16, 1786 Congress establishes the U.S. mint.
1787 Philadelphia has a population of 40,000.
The Northwest Ordinance dealt with the new land north of the Ohio River, east of the Mississipppi, south of the Great Lakes and west of Pennsylvania. It stated that as the
population grew, Congress would divide the region into smaller territories. Each new
territory would have a governor, secretary and 3 judges all chosen by Congress. Slavery
wasn't permitted. Once a territory reached a population of 5,000 free adult males, voters
would elect an assembly and Congress would select a governing council of 5 men. Upon reaching 60,000, territories could call a convention, draft a state constitution and apply to
Congress for statehood.
May 25, 1787 Every state except for Rhode Island showed up for the First Constitutional
Convention in Philadelphia to draw up a new plan for government. 55 delegates
(all white men) met in the Philadelphia State House. They decided to keep the
meetings a secret. James Madison "The Father of the Constitution", was the most
prepared and his notes were used as a guide to write the constitution.
The delegates made a Great Compromise that each state would be represented by
its population in the House of Representatives, but in the Senate each state would
have 2 senators. This compromise saved the convention.
September 17, 1787 The final form of the constitution was approved in a vote of 39 to 3 and sent to Congress to decide if it should be ratified.
December 7, 1787 Delaware was the first to ratify the Constitution and enter the Union.
January 1788 Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and Georgia ratified the Constitution and Enter the Union.
February 6, 1788 Massachusetts ratifies the Constitution and proposes 9 ammendments.
April 1788 Maryland ratifies the Constitution and enters the Union.
May 1788 South Carolina ratifies the Constitution and enters the Union.
June 21, 1788 New Hampshire ratifies the Constitution and enters the Union.
June 25, 1788 The Virginia convention voted 89 to 79 to ratify the Constitution and enter Union.
July 26, 1788 New York ratifies the Constitution and enters the Union.
February 4, 1789 The first electors cast their ballots in the first presidential election. The
electors represented their states' own elections that were held in 1788 with each state setting its own requirements for who could vote.
April 30, 1789 George Washington is inaugurated in New York City and the city serves as the first capital.
Washington's Secretary of State Alexander Hamilton felt that a strong federal government was needed while Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson believed in a
weaker government. Their disagreements led the to the first political party with
Hamilton's followers being known as Federalists and Jefferson's followers were
known as Republicans.
November 1789 North Carolina enters the Union.
1790 The first mill began spinning cotton.
Rhode Island enters the Union.
1791 Alexander Hamilton establishes the First Bank of the United States in Philadelphia.
George Washington asked Benjamin Banneker to lay out the new capital of Washington DC
The Treaty of Holston River cedes most Cherokee lands to the U.S. for a promise that the
Indians will be able stay for all time on the lands that are left.
Vermont enters the Union.
The Bill of Rights is ratified.
1792 Construction began on the President's House in Washington D.C.
Kentucky had enough people to become the first state west of the Appalachians.
Eli Whitney tested his cotton gin. It cleaned cotton 50 times faster than by hand.
1793 Construction begins on the U.S. Capitol.
The 1st American coins were made.
March 27, 1794 George Washington and Congress authorize creation of the Navy.
1795 The U.S. and Spain sign the Treaty of San Lorenzo where the Mississippi River becomes the border between the U.S. and Spanish colonies. Spain agrees to leave the port of New Orleans open for American trade.
June 1796 Tennessee enters the Union.
1797 John Adams became the 2nd president and served one term as a Federalist.
June 1798 The Alien and Sedition Act is passed and allowed the president to deport foreigners who were "dangerous to peace and safety," and also endangered the freedoms of
speech.
1799 The United States Armory and Arsenal was established at Harpers Ferry.
George Washington dies at Mount Vernon.
1800 The Treaty of San Ildefonso is signed between Spain and France. Spain gives the
Louisiana Territory to France on the condition that they don't sell it to an English-
speaking nation.
1801 Thomas Jefferson is elected 3rd president and serves two terms as a Republican.
1803 Ohio was created as a state from the Old Northwest territory.
President Jefferson sent James Monroe to France where he successfully negotiated for the purchase of the Louisiana Territory for $15 million.
1804 President Jefferson sent explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore
Louisiana. The expedition of 47 soldiers in 3 boats left in May.
July 11, 1804 Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
August 17, 1807 Robert Fulton's invention of boat powered by a steam engine first sailed.
1809 James Madison is elected 4th president and serves two terms as a Republican.
1811 Harrison defeats Tecumseh's brother, Tenskwatawa, at the Battle of Tippecanoe.
April 1812 Louisiana enters the Union.
June 1812 Congress declares was on Britain in hopes of taking over Canada.
August 19, 1812 American warship Constitution sinks one of Britain's best warships, Guerriere.
1813 A native force led by Tecumseh was defeated in the Battle of the Thames and ended Native-American resistance in the Old Northwest.
