Timeline of American History

TIME
PERIOD

To 1630

1630-1763

HISTORICA
L ERA

Early America

The Colonial
Period

Revolutionary
1763-1783
America

Historical Events

Pre-contact. Native American

Origins and Cultures. Early
Exploration. The Spanish The French
The English. Roanoke Island.
Jamestown. Christopher
Columbus. John Cabot. Sir Francis
Drake. Jacques Cartier. Henry
Hudson.

King Philip's War. Bacon's Rebellion.

Mayflower Compact. Marquette and
Joliet. Plymouth Colony.
Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Benjamin Franklin. French and
Indian War.

Stamp Act. Boston Massacre. Boston

Tea Party. 1st Continental Congress.
Common Sense. American
Revolution. 2nd Continental
Congress. Paul Revere's Ride. War of
Independence. Yorktown.

1783-1815

1815-1860

1830-1876

1871-1914

The Young
Republic

Expansion,
Political
Reform, and
Turmoil

Sectional
Controversy,
War, and
Reconstructio
n
Second
Industrial
Revolution

Articles of Confederation.
Constitutional Convention.
Washington. Hamilton and
Federalists. Jefferson and
Republicans. Whiskey Rebellion.
Battle of Fallen Timbers. Alien and
Sedition Acts. Louisiana Purchase.
Lewis and Clark. War of 1812.

Era of Good Feelings. First Industrial

Revolution. Henry Clay's Missouri
Compromise. Monroe Doctrine.
Andrew Jackson Nat Turner Rebellion.
Panic of 1837. Manifest Destiny. The
Alamo. Frederick Douglass. California
Gold Rush. Compromise of 1850.
Dred Scott. Lincoln-Douglas
Debates.

Slavery. Underground Railroad.

Bleeding Kansas. Abraham Lincoln.
Civil War. Battle of Gettysburg.
Radical Republicans. Reconstruction.
Little Big Horn.

Railroad Era. Thomas Edison.

Henry Ford. George Westinghouse.
Labor Movement. Sherman Antitrust
Act. Spanish-American War.

1880-1920

1914-1933

Political
Reform II

Populist Party. Jim Crow Laws.

Progressive (Bull Moose) Party
Theodore Roosevelt. William
Howard Taft. Woodrow Wilson.

War,
Prosperity,
and
Depression

Panama Canal. World War I. Black

Sox Scandal. Harding Scandals.
Charles Lindbergh. Stock Market
Crash. Babe Ruth. Amelia Earhart.

The New Deal

1933-1945 and World War
II

Franklin D. Roosevelt. First One

Hundred Days. Albert Einstein.
Manhattan Project. J. Edgar Hoover.
War in Europe. Adolph Hitler. The
Holocaust. Pearl Harbor. World
War II. War in the Pacific. Rosie the
Riveter. Harry S Truman and the
Atomic Bomb.

1945-1960

Postwar
America

Marshall Plan. Berlin Airlift. Korean

War. Senator Joseph McCarthy. Cold
War. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Brown v.
Board of Education. Rosa Parks.
Richard M. Nixon and John F.
Kennedy.

The Vietnam
Era

Bay of Pigs. Lyndon B. Johnson and

Civil Rights. Martin Luther King
Jr.. Henry M. Kissinger and Vietnam.
Roe v. Wade. Watergate. Jimmy
Carter. Iran Hostage Crisis. Ronald
Reagan and Conservatism.

1980-2000

End of the
Century

Iran-Contra Scandal. Fall of Berlin

Wall. Persian Gulf War. Bill Clinton
and Impeachment. Election Turmoil
in 2000.

2001present

The New
Millennium

1960-1980

September 11, 2001. Terrorism.

Afghanistan and Iraqi wars. Election
of 2004. George W. Bush.