Timeline For American Government

Front 1

1215

Back 1

Magna Carta

Front 2

1492

Back 2

Columbus discovers America

Front 3

1607

Back 3

Jamestown -first English settlement founded

Front 4

1620

Back 4

Plymouth colony- Mayflower Compact

Front 5

1630

Back 5

Massachusetts Bay Colony founded in Boston by Puritans

Front 6

1765

Back 6

Stamp Act

Front 7

1767

Back 7

Townsend Acts (tax on tea)

Front 8

1770

Back 8

Boston Massacre

Front 9

1773

Back 9

Boston Tea Party

Front 10

1774

Back 10

First Continental Congress

Front 11

1775

Back 11

Battles of Lexington & Concord (beginning of Revolutionary War)

Front 12

1776

Back 12

Declaration of Independence signed in Philadelphia

Front 13

1781

Back 13

Articles of Confederation

Cornwallis surrenders to Washington in Yorktown(End of Revolutionary War fighting)

Front 14

1783

Back 14

Treaty of Paris (end of Revolutionary War)

Front 15

1787

Back 15

Constitution signed

Front 16

1789

Back 16

George Washington is elected President

Front 17

1791

Back 17

James Madison writes the Bill of Rights

Front 18

1793

Back 18

Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin-leads to the need for more slaves

Front 19

1803

Back 19

Louisiana Purchase- T. Jefferson purchased from France for 15 mil. doubles size of US territory

Front 20

1804

Back 20

Lewis and Clark explore Louisiana Territory

Front 21

1807

Back 21

Robert Fulton invents steamboat

Front 22

1812

Back 22

War of 1812 attracts European respect for the US

Front 23

1820

Back 23

Missouri Compromise-Henry Clay proposed Maine be admitted as free to balance Missouri being admitted as slave. Slavery was prohibited in the remainder of the Louisiana Territory north of the souther border of Missouri.

Front 24

1823

Back 24

Monroe Doctrine-declared that American continents would thenceforth be closed to colonization but that the US would honor existing colonies of European nations.

Front 25

1848

Back 25

Seneca Falls- First women's rights meeting and the genesis of the women's suffrage movement.

Front 26

1857

Back 26

Dred Scott V Sandford. Taney rules that Scott cannot sue for freedom because it would violate the 5th amendment rights of slave holders

Front 27

1861-1865

Back 27

Civil War

Front 28

1865

Back 28

Lincoln assassinated.

13th amendment prohibits slavery

Front 29

1868

Back 29

14th amendment made all former slaves US citizens

Front 30

1870

Back 30

15th amendment gives African American men the right to vote

Front 31

1869

Back 31

Transcontinental Railroad joins East and West coasts

Front 32

1870

Back 32

J.D. Rockefeller founds Standard Oil

Front 33

1876

Back 33

Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone

Front 34

1879

Back 34

Edison invents electric light bulb

Front 35

1882

Back 35

Chinese Exclusion Act halted Chinese immigration to the US

Front 36

1898

Back 36

Spanish American War begins
TR becomes hero; is chosen to be McKinley's VP

Front 37

1901

Back 37

Teddy Roosevelt becomes president when McKinley is assassinated

Front 38

1914-1918

Back 38

WWI -global military conflict which took place primarily in Europe

Front 39

1917

Back 39

US enters World War I

Front 40

1918

Back 40

Spanish Flu category 5 flu pandemic killed up to 5% of the world population. In US over 1/2 million died.

Front 41

1918

Back 41

Treaty of Versailles- peace treaty that officially ended WWI between the Allied and Associated powers and Germany.

Front 42

1929

Back 42

Stock Market Crash

Front 43

1929-WWII

Back 43

The Great Depression- worst economic depression in American history.

Front 44

1932

Back 44

New Deal era of FDR begins

Front 45

1934

Back 45

Social Security Act passed

Front 46

1939-1945

Back 46

World War II

Front 47

1941

Back 47

Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, US enters war

Front 48

1944

Back 48

June 6- D Day- Allies invade Normandy, France

Front 49

1945

Back 49

US drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan 8/6
Nagasaki, Japan 8/9

Front 50

1945

Back 50

Cold War begins

Front 51

1949

Back 51

NATO is formed (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

Front 52

1954

Back 52

Brown v. Board of Education
US Supreme Court rules that segregation of public schools by race violated the Constitution

Front 53

1960

Back 53

Kennedy elected president

Front 54

1963

Back 54

(August) Marlting Luther King, Jr. delivers I HAVE A DREAM speech

Front 55

1963

Back 55

(November) President Kennedy assassinated.

Front 56

1964

Back 56

Pres Johnson elected to full term and sends thousand of US troops to Vietnam

Front 57

1968

Back 57

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy are assassinated.
Nixon elected President.

Front 58

1968

Back 58

Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin land on the moon

Front 59

1972

Back 59

Watergate break-in

Front 60

1973

Back 60

Roe v. Wade

Front 61

1974

Back 61

Nixon resigns- Ford becomes president

Front 62

1976

Back 62

Carter becomes president

Front 63

1980

Back 63

Reagan elected president

Front 64

1981

Back 64

Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first female Supreme Court justice

Front 65

1988

Back 65

George H.W. bush elected president

Front 66

1989

Back 66

Berlin Wall falls

Front 67

1990-1991

Back 67

Operation Desert Storm

Front 68

1992

Back 68

William Clinton elected president

Front 69

1995

Back 69

Republican Congress elected for the first time since 1955

Front 70

1999

Back 70

Clinton impeached and aquitted (not guilty)

Front 71

2000

Back 71

closest ever presidental election between Gore and G.W. Bush. Supreme court gets involved.

Front 72

2001

Back 72

9/11 terrorist attack
US soldiers sent to Afghanistatn

Front 73

2003

Back 73

US, Great Britan and Spain begin 'Operation Iraqi Freedom'