United States History Timeline

Significant dates in the history of the United States

28,000 BC - The first residents of what is now the United States arrive in Alaska by crossing the land bridge over Bering Straight.

1492 - Christopher Columbus lands on one of the Bahamas Islands, discovering the New World for 15th century Europe.

1497 - John Cabot lands in Newfoundland, beginning the British presence in North America.

1513 - Juan Ponce de León, a Spaniard, is the first European to arrive in the continental United States. He landed on a lush shore, which he christened "La Florida."

1587 - Sir Walter Raleigh founds Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the New World, in the Virginia Colony. (It was, however, found deserted in 1590.)

1607 - Jamestown Settlement is founded by English gold seekers. The Colony of Virginia is also founded.

1692 - Salem witchcraft trials take place in Salem Colony in Salem, Massachusetts.

1773 - Boston Tea Party. This event refers to a protest in Boston against the British government, in which a group of colonists destroyed shiploads of British tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor.

1775 to1783 - American Revolutionary War - American colonies fight for independence from British rule.

1776 - Declaration of Independence - a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire.

1783 - Treaty of Paris ends American Revolutionary War.

1788 - Constitution is ratified.

1789 - George Washington is elected the first President of the United States.

1800 - Library of Congress is founded.

1812 - The War of 1812 between the United States of America and the British Empire. The war lasted from 1812 to 1815, and was caused by trade restrictions, forced recruit of US citizens into the British Royal Navy, and British military support for American Indians who resisted the expansion of the American frontier.

1814 - The lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner," the American national anthem, are written by amateur poet Francis Scott Key in his poem, "Defence of Fort McHenry," after seeing the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. The anthem was recognized for official use by the US Navy in 1889 and by the President in 1916, and it was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931.

1830 - Indian Removal Act. The Removal Act refers to a government policy signed by President Andrew Jackson that caused the reluctant-and often forcible-emigration of tens of thousands of American Indians to the West.

1846 to 1848 - The Mexican-American War was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico in the wake of the 1845 US annexation of Texas.

1861 to 1865 - American Civil War. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the US and formed the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy). Led by Jefferson Davis, they fought against the US federal government (the "Union"), which was supported by all the free states and the five border slave states in the north.

1865 - Slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution.

1879 - Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.

1903 - Ford Motor Company is formed.

1917 - US enters World War I.

1929 - Great Depression begins. The Great Depression was a worldwide economic downturn starting in most places with the stock market crash on October 29th, 1929 ("Black Tuesday") and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s, depending on the country.

1941 - Japanese attack on the US at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The surprise attack sank four U.S. Navy battleships, among other boats, as well as destroyed 188 aircraft, killed 2,402 people and wounded 1,282. As a result, US enters World War II.

1944 - D-Day: The Normandy Landings started the Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II.

1945 - The US drops atomic bombs on, first, Hiroshima and, 3 days later, Nagasaki, Japan. Japan surrenders, ending World War II.

1949 - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is formed.

1955 - Rosa Parks incites Montgomery Bus Boycott - Rosa Parks was an African American civil rights activist whom US Congress later called the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement." On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Ms. Parks, age 42, refused to give up her seat on a bus to make room for a white passenger. Though her action was not the first of its kind, it sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a political and social protest campaign opposing the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. It was a key moment in the American civil rights movement.

1959 - Alaska and Hawaii become states.

1959 to 1975 - Vietnam War. Called "the American War" in Vietnam, this conflict took place between 1959 to 1975. It was the longest military conflict in US history, and the fighting in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Americans, while another 304,000 were wounded.

1961 - Alan Shepard pilots the Freedom 7 capsule to become the first American in space.

1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis. This confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba in the early 1960s during the Cold War came dangerously close to a nuclear war.

1963 - President John F. Kennedy is assassinated.

1968 - Martin Luther King Jr., an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement, is assassinated.

1969 - American astronaut Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.

1974 - Richard Nixon resigns Presidency over Watergate, a series of political scandals carried out by Nixon's staff. The scandals included breaking and entering, campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to pay those who conducted these operations.

1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission, resulting in the death of all seven crew members.

1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait leading to the Gulf War, which ends in 1991 when Iraq surrenders.

1995 - Oklahoma City bombing by US citizen Timothy McVeigh kills 168 and wounds 800.

1996 - Summer Olympic Games are held in Atlanta, Georgia. 2001 - September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, and The Pentagon. The Us declares "War on Terror." 2001 - Invasion of Afghanistan, Operation "Enduring Freedom."

2003 - US Invasion of Iraq.

2005 - Hurricane Katrina strikes, devastating the historic Louisiana city of New Orleans.

2009 - Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States, the first President of African-American descent.