NORTHAMERICAN-TIMELINE

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North American (Pre-History)

• 1000 BC–800 AD: The Norton tradition develops in the Western Arctic along the Alaskan shore of the Bering Strait
• 1000 BC: Athapaskan-speaking natives arrive in Alaska and northwestern North America, possibly from Siberia.
• 1000 BC: Pottery making widespread in the Eastern Woodlands.
• 1000 BC–100 AD: Adena culture takes form in the Ohio River valley, carving fine stone pipes placed with their dead in gigantic burial mounds.^[1] See Prehistory of Ohio.
• 500–1 BC: Basketmaker phase of early Ancestral Pueblo culture begins in the American Southwest.
• 500 BC–AD 1000: Plains Woodland period on the Great Plains
• 300 BC: Mogollon people, possibly descended from the Cochise tradition, appear in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico.
• 200 BC–500 AD: The Hopewell tradition begins flourishing in much of the East, with copper mining centered in the Great Lakes region.
• 1 BC: Some central and eastern prairie peoples learned to raise crops and shape pottery from the mound builders to their east.
• 500 BC–700 AD: Old Bering Sea culture thrives in the western Arctic
• 50 BC–800 AD: Ipiutak culture thrives in the western Arctic.^[1]
• 1 AD: Some central and eastern prairie peoples learned to raise crops and shape pottery from the mound builders to their east.
• 100–1000: Weeden Island culture flourishes in coastal Florida. They are known for their extraordinarily well-preserved wood carvings.
• 200: The Adena culture of the Ohio River valley evolves into the Hopewellian exchange.
• 200–800: Late Eastern Woodlands cultures flourish in the Eastern North America.^[1]
• 200–1450: Hohokam cultures flourish in Arizona and north Mexico^[1]
• 400: Cultivation of maize (corn) begins in the American Southeastern Woodlands and soon reaches the Northeastern Woodlands. Originally domesticated in Mesoamerica, maize transforms the Eastern Agricultural Complex.
• 400: Ancestral Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest weave extraordinarily long nets for trapping small animals and make yucca fibers into large sacks and bags.
• 500: Late Basketmaker II Era phase of Ancestral Pueblo culture diminishes in the American Southwest.
• 700: Basketmaker III Era of the American Southwest evolve into the early Pueblo culture.
• 755±65 – 890±65: likely dates of the Blythe Geoglyphs being sculpted by ancestral Quechan and Mojave peoples in the Colorado Desert, California^[3]
• 700–800: Ancestral Pueblo people of the American Southwest or Oasisamerica transition from pit houses to multi-story adobe and stone apartments called pueblos.
• 800–1500: Mississippian culture spawns powerful chiefdoms of great agricultural Moundbuilders throughout the Eastern woodlands.
• 875: Patayan people begin farming along the Colorado River valley in western Arizona and eastern California.
• 900: Earliest event recorded in the Battiste Good (1821–22, Sicangu Lakota) Winter count^[4]
• 900: Ancestral Pueblo culture dominates much of the American Southwest.
• 900: American Southwestern tribes trade with Indigenous peoples of Mexico to obtain copper bells cast through the lost-wax technique.
• 915 (exact date): Construction begins at Pueblo Bonito, the largest Ancestral Pueblo Great House.
• 1000: Discovery of Vinland by Leif Ericson and Norse colonization of North America.
• 1000–1200: Acoma Pueblo and Old Oraibi are established, become the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States
• 1000–1750: Fort Ancient culture, a non-Mississippian culture emerges in modern-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, southeastern Indiana, and western West Virginia.
• 1000–1780: Plains Village period on Great Plains, from North Dakota to Texas.
• 1070: Great Serpent Mound built in Ohio.
• 1100: Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon reaches apex in size at 800 rooms.
• 1100: Hohokam culture reaches apex in present-day Arizona.
• Scandinavians briefly settled Vinland (likely l’Anse aux Meadows on the Canadian Maritime island of Newfoundland) early in the century and perhaps ventured as far south as New England.
• The Thule people began absorbing the old Dorset culture in Arctic Alaska.
• 900–1150: Pueblo II Era in the American Southwest
• 1000–1200: Early Mississippian culture in the Eastern Woodlands
• 1000–1200: Acoma Pueblo and Old Oraibi are established, and become the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States
• 1142: League of the Iroquois is founded, and the Great Law of Peace is adopted by the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida people.^[15] Wampum invented by Ayenwatha, which the Haudenosaunee used to record information.
• 1150–1350: Pueblo III Era in the American Southwest^[17]
• The Inuit Thule people largely displaced the old Dorset culture in Arctic Alaska.
• The most important city of the Mississippian culture of mound builders, Cahokia on the Mississippi River opposite modern Saint Louis, Missouri, reached its zenith. It was the largest city in North America in the 12th century.
• 1150–1350: Ancestral Pueblo people are in their Pueblo III Era
• 1200: Construction begins on the Grand Village of the Natchez near Natchez, Mississippi. This ceremonial center for the Natchez people is occupied and built upon until the early 17th century.
• 1200–1400: Middle Mississippian culture flourishes in the Eastern Woodlands
• 1250: Pensacola culture emerges in Florida
• 1250: Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, and other Ancestral Pueblo architectural complexes reach their apex.
• The Inuit Thule people have completely displaced the old Dorset culture in Arctic Alaska.
• Pueblo people in the American Southwest evacuate most above-ground pueblos to build spectacular cliff dwellings housing hundreds of people.
• The dominant Ancestral Pueblo begin gradually absorbing the Mongollon culture in the American Southwest.
• Athapaskan-speaking people begin migrating from the prairies of Alberta and Montana toward the American Southwest.
• The Four Corners area of the American Southwest suffered severe droughts late in the century, causing many Pueblos to abandon their cliff dwellings for irrigable settlements along the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico.
• 1300: Cliff Palace is abandoned.^[23][24]
• 1200–1400: Middle Mississippian culture in the Eastern Woodlands
• 1315–1317: The Little Ice Age brought a period of severe decline to medieval Europe, causing the Great Famine.
• The 14th century in America probably also brought decline of the Mississippian culture, especially in the northern states. Dendroclimatology suggests that severe droughts ravaged the American Southwest and especially the Southern Plains early in the period, leading to a rapid cultural decline.
• Athapaskan-speaking people continue to migrate southward from the Canadian prairies toward the American Southwest.
• Athapaskan-speaking Apache and Navajo reach the American Southwest after migrating over three centuries from the western Canadian prairies.^{[citation needed]}
• Mississippian culture (Pensacola culture, Plaquemine culture, Lake George Phase, Fort Walton culture)
• Late Woodland Southeast (Alachua culture, Suwannee Valley culture)
• Safety Harbor culture
• 1492: Christopher Columbus sails to India and stumbles on to the American continent (first European contact on the American continent since the Norse colonization of North America 500 years earlier.
• 1497: Italian navigator John Cabot sails from England to Newfoundland.

Antiquity

• c. 27,000–12,000 years ago – Humans cross the Beringia land bridge into North and then South America. Dates of earliest migration to the Americas is highly debated.
• c. 15,500 year old arrowhead; oldest verified arrowhead in the Americas, found in Texas.^[1]
• c. 11,500 BCE – Start of Clovis Culture in North America.
• c. 10,200 BCE – Cooper Bison skull is painted with a red zigzag in present-day Oklahoma, becoming the oldest known painted object in North America.
• c. 9500 BC – Cordilleran and Laurentide Ice Sheets retreat enough to open a habitable ice-free corridor through the northern half of the continent (North America) along the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains.
• c. 1000 BCE-1000 CE – Woodland Period of Pre-Columbian Native Americans in Eastern America.
• 200 CE – Pyramid of the Sun built near modern-day Mexico City.
• 250–900 CE – Classic Period of the Maya Civilization
• 600 CE – Emergence of Mississippian culture in North America.

988–1490

• 986 – Norsemen settle Greenland and Bjarni Herjólfsson sights coast of North America, but doesn’t land^{[citation needed]} (see also Norse colonization of the Americas).
• c. 1000: Norse settle briefly in L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.^[2]
• c. 1100 – Oraibi was founded sometime before the year 1100 CE, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements within the United States.^[3][4]
• c. 1100-1200 – Cahokia near modern-day St. Louis reaches its apex population
• c. 1190 – Construction begins on the Cliff Palace by Ancestral Puebloans in modern-day Colorado
• c. 1325 – Tenochtitlan founded as part of the Aztec Empire
• c. 1400 – Beginning of the European Age of Discovery.
• c. 1450: Norse colony in Greenland dies out^{[citation needed]}.
• 1473 – João Vaz Corte-Real perhaps reaches Newfoundland; writes about the “Land of Cod fish” in his journal.
• before 1492 – Population estimates in the New World before European contact may be as high as 112 million people.

1492–1499

• 1492 – Christopher Columbus, financed by Spain, lands on the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas, discovering the New World for Europe.
• 1496 – Santo Domingo, the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas, is settled.
• 1497 – John Cabot lands in Newfoundland, beginning the British colonial presence in Continental North America.

1500–1599

• c. 1500 – Disappearance of Mississippian culture.
• 1507 – A new world map by Martin Waldseemuller names the continents of the New World “America” in honor of Amerigo Vespucci.
• 1508 – First European colony and oldest known European settlement in a United States territory is founded at Caparra, Puerto Rico, by Ponce de Leon.
• 1513 – Vasco Núñez de Balboa crosses isthmus of Panama, sees the Pacific Ocean.
• 1513 – Juan Ponce de León defeats Tlaxcala, a small state neighboring the Aztec Empire.
• 1520s – Spanish begin the conquest of Aztec civilization.
• 1521 – Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec empire.
• 1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano, working for France, explores coastline from present-day Maine to North Carolina.
• 1534 – Jacques Cartier plants a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula (modern Quebec) and claimed the land for France.
• 1540 – Pedro de Tovar comes in contact with the Hopi people at Oraibi as part of the expedition led by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado
• 1541 – Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River, strengthening Spanish claims to the interior of North America.
• 1562 – Jean Ribault, leaves France with 150 colonists for the New World, establishing Charlesfort on Parris Island in South Carolina, which was abandoned several years later.
• 1564 – French Fort Caroline established on the banks of the St. Johns River, Florida; sacked by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565.
• 1565 – Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds St. Augustine, Florida, the earliest successful Spanish/European settlement in the future continental United States.
• 1570s – Iroquois Confederacy founded.
• 1579 – Francis Drake claims the lands of California for England and Queen Elizabeth I, landing in Drake’s Bay and naming it New Albion.
• 1585 – Sir Walter Raleigh founds Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the New World, though he never set foot in it.
• 1587 – Virginia Dare was born on Roanoke making her the first known English child born in the New World. The first Asians to set foot on what would be the United States occurred when Filipino sailors arrived in Spanish ships at Morro Bay, California; see Landing of the first Filipinos.
• 1588 – First battle of the English against the Spanish Armada begins, leading to their defeat and the lessening of Spain’s influence in the New World and the rise of English influence in the Americas.
• 1590 – Roanoke Colony found deserted.

1600–1699

1600s

• 1602 – Captain Bartholomew Gosnold is the first Englishman to land on the New England coast, exploring and naming Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.
• 1605 – First capital of Acadia (French) was established as Port-Royal in modern-day Nova Scotia; it lasted until 1613. George Weymouth explores New England.
• 1606 – The joint-stock company Virginia Company of London is founded and granted a Royal Charter by James I to settle in the New World.
• 1607 – Establishment of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. The short lived Popham Colony founded in Maine by the Virginia Company of Plymouth.
• 1608 – Founding of Quebec (Habitation de Québec) by Samuel de Champlain.
• 1609 – Henry Hudson explores the Hudson River and Delaware Bay for the Dutch.
• 1609–10 – The Starving Time at Jamestown.

1610s

• 1610 – Santa Fe, New Mexico established by Spain
• 1612 – The Dutch establish a fur trading center with the Native Americans on Manhattan Island.
• 1614 – Dutch claim New Netherland. John Rolfe successfully harvests tobacco in Jamestown, Virginia, ensuring the colonies success.
• 1617–19 – Smallpox kills roughly 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Indians
• 1619 – First African slaves in English North America arrive at Jamestown. House of Burgesses was formed in Jamestown, the first democratically elected legislative body in English North America.

1620s

• 1620 – Mayflower Compact signed. Plymouth Colony is founded in what would be Massachusetts, by the Plymouth Company.
• 1622 – Indian massacre of 1622 in Virginia.
• 1624 – King James I revokes the Virginia Company‘s charter, and Virginia becomes a royal colony. Foundation of New Amsterdam by the Dutch West India Company; would later be renamed New York.
• 1625 – King James I dies; King Charles I becomes King of England
• 1628 – Massachusetts Bay Colony founded.

1630s

• 1630 – Winthrop Fleet to Massachusetts Bay Colony. Manor of Rensselaerswyck founded. Boston founded.
• 1632 – Province of Maryland founded.
• 1634 – Theologian Roger Williams banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1636 – Connecticut Colony founded by Thomas Hooker. Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations founded by Roger Williams. Harvard College founded.
• 1637 – New Haven Colony founded.
• 1638 – Pequot War ends in New England. New Sweden established around the southern Delaware River by Peter Minuit.
• 1639 – Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony signed. Fundamental Orders of Connecticut adopted and the Crown formally recognizes the Virginia Assembly.

1640s

• 1640 – French and Iroquois Wars escalate to full warfare.
• 1642 – Beginning of the English Civil War. Montreal founded.
• 1643 – New England Confederation created.
• 1643–1645 – Kieft’s War in New Netherland.
• 1644–1646 – Third Anglo–Powhatan War
• 1649 – Maryland Toleration Act. Execution of King Charles I and the establishment of Commonwealth in England.

1650s

• 1651 – In the wake of the English Civil War, Virginia acknowledges the authority of the Parliament of England.
• 1655 – New Sweden becomes incorporated into the Dutch colony of New Netherland
• 1656 – First Quakers arrive in New England.
• 1655–1660 – Peach Tree War
• 1658 – Death of Oliver Cromwell
• 1659–1663 – Esopus Wars

1660s

• 1660 – British republic collapses, Charles II becomes King.
• 1662 – Halfway Covenant adopted.
• 1663 – King Charles II grants charter for a new colony, (Province of Carolina).
• 1664 – New Amsterdam captured by the English at the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. New Jersey and New York established as Proprietary Colonies of England.
• 1665 – The Duke’s Laws are issued.
• 1667 – New Netherland ceded to England under Treaty of Breda.
• 1669 – The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina are drawn up.
• 1669–1670 – John Lederer of Virginia explores the Appalachian Mountains.

1670s

• 1670 – Charles Town (Charleston) founded in present-day South Carolina.
• 1671 – The Batts-Fallam expedition sponsored by Abraham Wood reaches the New River (West Virginia).
• 1672 – Blue Laws enacted in Connecticut.
• 1672–73 – Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette explore the Illinois Country.
• 1674 – New Netherland permanently relinquished to English with Treaty of Westminster.
• 1675 – King Philip’s War (1675–76) in New England.
• 1676 – Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia; Bacon writes the “Declaration of the People of Virginia“.
• 1677 – Colonists in North Carolina rebel against Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper. Edmund Andros, Governor of New York, negotiates the Covenant Chain with the Iroquois. Province of Maine absorbed by Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1679 – War between the Westo and colonial South Carolina results in the destruction of the Westo. The Province of New Hampshire is created out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony by royal decree from King Charles II.

1680s

• 1681 – William Penn receives a royal charter from Charles II to establish Pennsylvania.
• 1682 – René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle explored the Ohio River Valley and the Mississippi River Valley, and he claimed the entire territory for France as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. William Penn publishes “Frame of Government of Pennsylvania” that provides for a precursor of a bicameral government. Philadelphia founded.
• 1685 – Charles II dies and his brother the Duke of York becomes King James II. Fort St. Louis (French colonization of Texas) established near Arenosa Creek on Matagorda Bay by French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle; the fort was abandoned in 1688.
• 1686 – Arkansas Post established by Henri de Tonti as the first European settlement in the lower Mississippi River Valley.
• 1688–97 – King William’s War, the North American theater of the Nine Years’ War.
• 1688 – The Glorious Revolution occurs; King James II flees to France and is replaced by William and Mary of Orange.
• 1689 – The English Parliament presents the English Bill of Rights to William and Mary and is later used as one of the models for the United States Bill of Rights. The Boston Revolt and Leisler’s Rebellion. Toleration Act 1688 is passed by Parliament which gives limited Freedom of Religion to all British citizens.

1690s

• c. 1690 – Spanish authorities, concerned that France posed a competitive threat, constructed several missions in East Texas; see Spanish Missions in Texas.
• 1690 – The first newspaper issue in the English colonies is published in Boston, the Public Occurrences.
• 1692 – Salem Witch Trials
• 1693 – College of William & Mary founded in Williamsburg, Virginia. Rice culture introduced in the Province of Carolina.
• 1694 – Mary II dies, William III takes sole rule over England.
• 1696 – Cahokia, Illinois established by French missionaries from Quebec and is one of the earliest permanent settlements in the region.
• 1697 – The Treaty of Ryswick ends King William’s War and restores all colonial possessions to pre-war ownership.
• 1699 – Capital of Virginia moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg; Jamestown is slowly abandoned. The Wool Act, forbade the export of wool from the American colonies. Free blacks ordered to leave the Colony of Virginia.

1700–1759

1700s

• 1700 – José Romo de Vivar becomes one of the earliest European (Spanish) settlers in the future state of Arizona.
• 1701 – The Collegiate school at Saybrook is founded in Connecticut; it will later be renamed as Yale College. Delaware Colony granted charter, separating it from Pennsylvania.
• 1702 – William III dies, is succeeded by Queen Anne. Queen Anne’s War (War of the Spanish Succession) begins. East Jersey and West Jersey become crown colonies. Mobile, Alabama founded.
• 1703 – Kaskaskia, Illinois established as a small mission station for the French.
• 1704 – The first regular newspaper publishes its initial edition in Boston, the News-Letter and was begun by John Campbell. The Province of Carolina allows the arming of slaves during time of war.
• 1705 – The House of Burgesses passes the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705.
• 1706 – Benjamin Franklin born in Boston. Albuquerque founded and named for the viceroy of New Spain, Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 10th Duke of Alburquerque.

1710s

• 1710 – Francis Nicholson takes Port Royal.
• 1711–15 – North Carolina fights the Tuscarora War with the Tuscarora people.
• 1712 – New York Slave Revolt of 1712.
• 1713 – The Treaty of Utrecht is signed, bringing an end to Queen Anne’s War; England gains Nova Scotia.
• 1714 – Queen Anne dies; succeeded by George I. Natchitoches established by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, making it the oldest permanent European settlement in the modern state of Louisiana.
• 1715 – South Carolina begins the Yamasee War.
• 1718 – Mission San Antonio de Valero (The Alamo) built as the first Spanish mission along the San Antonio River. New Orleans founded by the French. Blackbeard is killed in battle by lieutenant Robert Maynard in the waters off the Province of North Carolina.

1720s

• 1723 – Colony of Virginia passes an act to deal with slave conspiracies. The French establish Fort Orleans along the Missouri River near Brunswick, Missouri.
• 1725 – Father Rale’s War (1722–25)
• 1727 – George I dies, is succeeded by George II. British build Fort Oswego.
• 1729 – Province of Carolina proprietors sell out to Crown. City of Baltimore founded.

1730s

• c. 1730 – For the first time, the majority of slaves in Chesapeake, Virginia were born in the New World.
• 1732 – The Province of Georgia is founded by General James Oglethorpe.
• 1735 – John Peter Zenger is found innocent of libel by the New York City trial on August 4.
• 1739 – The Stono Rebellion in the Province of South Carolina is crushed.
• 1739-40 – George Whitefield begins his travels throughout the colonies. His message of everyday Christians having a personal connection with God resonates and begins the First Great Awakening.

1740s

• 1740 – The Plantation Act is passed to encourage immigration to the colonies and regularize colonial naturalization procedures. Battle of Cartagena de Indias, where the colonists are called “Americans” for the first time. James Oglethorpe fails to take St. Augustine. South Carolina enacts the Negro Act of 1740.
• 1741 – The New York Conspiracy of 1741 is suppressed.
• 1744 – King George’s War (1744–48)
• 1745 – New Englanders take Louisbourg.
• 1746 – Princeton University founded, with Jonathan Dickinson as its first president.
• 1747 – Founding of the Ohio Company.
• 1749 – Province of Georgia overturns its ban on slavery. Father Le Loutre’s War (1749–55)

1750s

• c. 1750 – Population of the Thirteen Colonies is roughly 1.5 million.
• 1750 – Thomas Walker passes through the Cumberland Gap.
• 1754 – French and Indian War begins, aka the Seven Years’ War; first engagement at the Battle of Jumonville Glen. Albany Congress, in which a “Union of Colonies” is proposed. Columbia University founded as King’s College by George II Royal Charter.
• 1757 – Siege of Fort William Henry.
• 1758 – Siege of Louisbourg; Battle of Fort Frontenac; Battle of Fort Duquesne. The first black Baptist church is founded in Lunenburg, Virginia.
• 1759 – Quebec is taken, British victory assured in French and Indian War.

See Timeline of the American Revolution for events starting from 1760.

Timeline of the American Revolution — timeline of the political upheaval culminating in the 18th century in which Thirteen Colonies in North America joined together for independence from the British Empire, and after victory in the Revolutionary War combined to form the United States of America. The American Revolution includes political, social, and military aspects. The revolutionary era is generally considered to have begun with the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 and ended with the ratification of the United States Bill of Rights in 1791. The military phase of the revolution, the American Revolutionary War, lasted from 1775 to 1783.

1600s

1629

• The Cambridge Agreement (August 29, 1629)

1683

• The Lords of Trade issues quo warranto writs for the charters of several North American colonies, including Massachusetts (June 3).

1684

• Revocation of the Charter by Charles II (June 18). The Massachusetts writ is never served for technical reasons, and the agreement is formally vacated when the chancery court issues a scire facias writ formally annulling the charter. The proceedings are arranged so that the time for the colonial authorities to defend the charter expires before they even learn of the event.

1686

• Charter arrives in Boston (May 14) establishing the Dominion of New England in America.

1689

• 1689 Boston revolt (April 18) Leaders of the former Massachusetts Bay Colony reclaim control of the government. In other colonies, members of governments displaced return to power.

1691

• William III and Mary II approve the charter (October 7) formally establishing the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

1750s

1754

• Albany Congress (June 18–July 11) The first time in the 18th century that American colonial representatives meet to discuss some manner of formal union.

1760s

1760

• Pierre de Rigaud, Governor of New France, capitulates (September 8) to Field Marshal Jeffrey Amherst. This ends most fighting in North America between France and Great Britain in the French and Indian War. Amherst becomes the First British Governor-General of territories that would later become Canada plus lands (Ohio Country and Illinois Country) west of the American Colonies.
• King George II of Great Britain dies (October 25) and is succeeded by his grandson George III.

1761

• New England Planters immigrate to Nova Scotia, Canada (1759–1768) to take up lands left vacant after the Expulsion of the Acadians.

1763

• The Treaty of Paris (February 10) formally ends the French and Indian War. France cedes most of its territories in North America to Great Britain, but Louisiana west of the Mississippi River is ceded to Spain.
• Previously allied with France, a Native American confederacy in the Great Lakes region, dissatisfied the policies of the British under Amherst, launch Pontiac’s War under the overall command of the eponymous Ottowa chief, which lasts until 1766.
• King George’s Royal Proclamation of 1763 (October 7) establishes administration in territories newly ceded by France. To prevent further violence between settlers and Native Americans, the Proclamation sets a western boundary on the American colonies.
• The Navigation Acts are re-enforced by George Grenville as a part of his attempt to reassert unified economic control over the British Empire following the Seven Years’ War.

1764

• The Sugar Act (April 5), intended to raise revenues, and the Currency Act (September 1), prohibiting the colonies from issuing paper money, are passed by Parliament. These Acts, coming during the economic slump that followed the French and Indian War, are resented by the colonists and lead to protests.

1765

• To impose control and help defray the cost of keeping troops in America to control the colonists, Parliament enacts (March 22) the Stamp Act, imposing a tax on many types of printed materials used in the colonies. Seen as a violation of rights, the Act sparks violent demonstrations in several Colonies. Virginia’s House of Burgesses adopts (May 29) the Virginia Resolves claiming that, under British law, Virginians could be taxed only by an assembly to which they had elected representatives.
• Delegates from nine colonies attend the Stamp Act Congress which adopts (October 19) a Declaration of Rights and Grievances and petitions Parliament and the king to repeal the Act.
• Parliament enacts (March 24) the Quartering Act, requiring the Colonies to provide housing, food, and other provisions to British troops. The act is resisted or circumvented in most of the colonies. In 1767 and again in 1769, Parliament suspended the governor and legislature of New York for failure to comply.

1766

• The British Parliament repeals (March 18) the unpopular Stamp Act of the previous year, but, in the simultaneous Declaratory Act, asserts its “full power and authority to make laws and statutes … to bind the colonies and people of America … in all cases whatsoever”.
• Liberty Pole erected in New York City commons in celebration of the Stamp Act repeal (May 21). An intermittent skirmish with the British garrison over the removal of this and other poles, and their replacement by the Sons of Liberty, rages until the Province of New York is under the control of the revolutionary New York Provincial Congress in 1775

1767

• The Townshend Acts, named for Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend, are passed by Parliament (June 29), placing duties on many items imported into America.

1768

• In April, Britain’s Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Hillsborough, orders colonial governors to stop their own assemblies from endorsing Adams’ circular letter. Hillsborough also orders the governor of Massachusetts to dissolve the general court if the Massachusetts assembly does not revoke the letter. By month’s end, the assemblies of New Hampshire, Connecticut and New Jersey have endorsed the letter.
• In May, a British warship, HMS Romney, armed with 50 cannon sails into Boston harbor after a call for help from custom commissioners who are constantly being harassed by Boston agitators. In June, a customs official is locked up in the cabin of Liberty, a sloop owned by John Hancock. Imported wine is then unloaded illegally into Boston without payment of duties. Following this incident, customs officials seize Hancock’s sloop. After threats of violence from Bostonians, the customs officials escape to an island off Boston, then request the intervention of British troops.
• In July, the governor of Massachusetts dissolves the general court after the legislature defies his order to revoke Adams’ circular letter. In August, in Boston and New York, merchants agree to boycott most British goods until the Townshend Acts are repealed. In September, at a town meeting in Boston, residents are urged to arm themselves. Later in September, British warships sail into Boston Harbor, then two regiments of British infantry land in Boston and set up permanent residence to keep order.

1769

• To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York broadside published by the local Sons of Liberty

1770s

1770

• Golden Hill incident in which British troops wound civilians, including one death (January 19)
• Lord North becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain (January 28)

• Boston Massacre (March 5)

1771

• Battle of Alamance in North Carolina (May 16)

1772

• Samuel Adams organizes the Committees of Correspondence
• Pine Tree Riot
• Gaspee Affair (June 9)
• Somerset v Stewart A British court rules there is nothing in English common law that supports slavery in England. (June 22)
• The Watauga Association in what would become Tennessee declares itself independent.

1773

• James Rivington‘s New-York Gazeteer begins publication (April 22)
• Parliament passes the Tea Act (May 10)
• Association of the Sons of Liberty in New York published by local Sons of Liberty (December 15)
• Colonists in all major ports refuse to allow tea to be landed.
• Boston Tea Party (December 16)

1774

• A decisive year.
• Benjamin Franklin, Massachusetts’ agent in London, is ridiculed before Parliament
• Lord Dunmore’s War
• British pass Intolerable Acts, including:
  • Boston Port Act (March 31)
  • Administration of Justice Act (May 20),
  • Massachusetts Government Act (May 20),
  • A second Quartering Act (June 2), and
  • Quebec Act
• The Powder Alarm, General Gage’s secret raid on the Cambridge powder magazine (September 1)
• The First Continental Congress meets; twelve colonies send delegates (September 5 – October 26)
• The Suffolk Resolves (September 9)
• The burning of Peggy Stewart (October 19)
• Petition to the King (October 26)
• Greenwich Tea Party (December 22)

1775

• Battles of Lexington and Concord, followed by the Siege of Boston (April 19)
• Gunpowder Incident (April 20)
• Skenesboro, New York (now Whitehall, New York) captured by Lieutenant Samuel Herrick. (May 9)
• Fort Ticonderoga captured by Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold and the Green Mountain Boys. (May 10)
• Second Continental Congress meets (May 10)
• Battle of Machias (June 11-12)
• Congress votes to create Continental Army out of the militia units around Boston and appointed George Washington of Virginia as commanding general. This would later become the modern United States Army (June 14)
• Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17)
• Washington arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts to take command of the Continental Army (July 2)
• Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms issued (July 6)
• Olive Branch Petition sent to King George III (July 8)
• Snow Campaign (November–December)
• Dunmore’s Proclamation issued by Lord Dunmore, colonial governor of Virginia, offering freedom to slaves that abandon their Patriot masters and fight for the British. (November 7)
• Continental Marines established by Continental Congress. They would become the modern day United States Marine Corps (November 10)
• Battle of Kemp’s Landing (November 15)
• Siege of Savage’s Old Fields (November 19–21)
• Henry Knox transported fifty-nine captured cannons (taken from Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Crown Point) from upstate New York to Boston, Massachusetts. Trip took 56 days to complete. (December 5, 1775 to January 24, 1776)
• Battle of Great Bridge (December 9)
• British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Quebec. (December 31)

1776

• New Hampshire ratifies the first state constitution (Actually 1788)
• Burning of Norfolk (January 1)
• Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense (January 10)
• David Mathews appointed Mayor of New York, the highest ranking civilian officer for English North America for the duration of the Revolution.
• Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge (February 27)
• Battle of the Rice Boats (March 2–3)
• Battle of Nassau (March 3–4)
• Fortification of Dorchester Heights results in British forces evacuating Boston (March 4–5)
• British evacuate Boston (March 17)
• Pennsylvania Provincial Conference (June 18–25, 1776)
• Battle of Sullivan’s Island (June 28)
• Thomas Hickey hanged for role in plot to assassinate George Washington (June 28). British Colonial Loyalist New York Mayor David Mathews previously arrested in Flatbush, Brooklyn for his role in the plot (June 22).
• The Newly formed Continental Army departs its first winter encampment at Cambridge, Massachusetts (April)
• Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet (June 29)
• Largest assembly of British naval fleet in history commences off the coasts of Staten Island, Brooklyn and New Jersey (July 3).
  Declaration of Independence, 1819 painting by John Trumbull

• Second Continental Congress enacts (July 2) a resolution declaring independence from the British Empire, and then approves (July 4) the written “United States Declaration of Independence”.
• Sons of Liberty order enslaved African Americans to topple the statue of King George III in Bowling Green (July 9)
• Battle of Long Island, a.k.a. Battle of Brooklyn (August 27)
• British prison ships begin in Wallabout Bay, New York
• Staten Island Peace Conference (September 11)
• Landing at Kip’s Bay (September 15)
• Battle of Harlem Heights (September 16)
• Great Fire of New York (September 21–22)
• Nathan Hale captured and executed for espionage (September 22)
• Battle of Valcour Island (October 11)
• Battle of Pell’s Point (October 18)
• Battle of White Plains (October 29)
• Battle of Fort Cumberland (November 10–29)
• Battle of Fort Washington (November 16)
• Battle of Fort Lee (November 20)
• Ambush of Geary (December 14)
• Battle of Iron Works Hill (December 23 – December 26)

• Battle of Trenton (December 26)

1777

• Battle of the Assunpink Creek, also known as the Second Battle of Trenton, (January 2)
• Battle of Princeton (January 3)
• Continental Army enters second winter encampment of the war at Morristown (January 6)
• Forage War (January – March):
  • Battle of Millstone (January 20)
  • Battle of Drake’s Farm (February 1)
  • Battle of Quibbletown (February 8)
  • Battle of Spanktown (February 23)
• Battle of Bound Brook (April 13)
• Sybil Ludington, 16-year-old daughter of American Colonel Henry Ludington, makes a 40-mile (64 km) ride in the early hours of the night (April 26)
• British regulars, under Major General William Tryon, burn and loot Danbury, Connecticut (April 26)
• Battle of Ridgefield (April 27)
• Battle of Thomas Creek (May 17)
• Meigs Raid (May 23)
• First Middlebrook encampment (May 28 – July 2)
• Battle of Short Hills (June 26)
• Fort Ticonderoga abandoned by the Americans due to advancing British troops placing cannon on Mount Defiance. (July 5)
• British retake Fort Ticonderoga. (July 6)
• Battle of Hubbardton (July 7)
• Delegates in Vermont, which was not one of the Thirteen Colonies, establish a republic and adopt (July 8) a constitution—the first in what is now the territory of the United States to prohibit slavery. (Vermont would become the fourteenth state in 1791.)
• Battle of Fort Anne (July 8)
• Siege of Fort Stanwix (August 2–23)
• Battle of Oriskany (August 6)
• Battle of Machias (1777) (August 13–14)
• Battle of Bennington (August 16)
• Battle of Staten Island (August 22)
• Siege of Fort Henry (September 1)
• Battle of Cooch’s Bridge (September 3)
• Battle of Brandywine (September 11)
• Battle of the Clouds (September 16)
• Battle of Paoli (Paoli Massacre) (September 20)
• British occupation of Philadelphia (September 26)
• Battle of Germantown (October 4)

• Battle of Red Bank (October 5-November 25)
• Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery (October 6)
• Two Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7) conclude with the surrender of the British army under General Burgoyne.
• Battle of Red Bank (October 22)
• Articles of Confederation adopted by the Second Continental Congress (November 15)
• Capture of Fort Mifflin, (November 16) and Fort Mercer, (November 18)
• Battle of Gloucester (1777) (November 25)
• Battle of White Marsh (December 5 – December 8)
• Battle of Matson’s Ford (December 11)
• Rivington’s Gazetter renamed Royal Gazette (December 13)
• 1777–1778 – Continental Army in third winter quarters at Valley Forge (December 19 – June 19)

1778

• Treaty of Amity and Commerce and Treaty of Alliance with France (February 6)
• France is the first foreign country to recognise the flag of the United States, on the ship of John Paul Jones (February 14)
• Battle of Quinton’s Bridge (March 18)
• John Paul Jones, in command of the Ranger, attacks Whitehaven in England, America’s first naval engagement outside North America (April 20)
• The Great Chain across the Hudson is completed (April 30)
• Battle of Crooked Billet (May 1)
• Battle of Barren Hill (May 20)
• Battle of Cobleskill (May 30)
• British occupation of Philadelphia ends (June)
• Whaleboat attack on Flatbush, Brooklyn to kidnap New York Mayor David Mathews and other British and Loyalist figures partially succeeds in securing Captain James Moncrief and Theophylact Bache, President of the New York Chamber of Commerce, for future prisoner exchange (June)
• Battle of Monmouth (June 28)
• Battle of Wyoming (July 3)
• Battle of Ushant (July 27)
• Battle of Rhode Island (August 29)
• Baylor Massacre (September 27)
• Battle of Chestnut Neck (October 6)
• Affair at Little Egg Harbor (October 15)
• Cherry Valley massacre (November 11)
• Capture of Savannah (December 29) British successfully launch their southern strategy
• 1778–1779 – Majority of Continental Army in fourth winter quarters at Middlebrook Cantonment (November 30 – June 3)
• 1778–1779 – Major General Israel Putnam chooses Redding, Connecticut as his winter encampment to keep an eye on the storehouses in Danbury, Connecticut.

1779

• February 14 – Battle of Kettle Creek
• February 23–25 Siege of Fort Vincennes
• May 10–24 – Chesapeake raid
• July 3-14 – Tryon’s raid
  • July 5 – Tryon’s division lands in East Haven, Connecticut,met with spirited resistance from a band of local militia, take Black Rock Fort
  • July 7 – Battle of Fairfield Destroy 54 barns, 47 storehouses, burned 83 homes, two churches, and municipal buildings including a schoolhouse, the courthouse and the local jail
  • July 11 – Battle of Norwalk weakly opposed by about 50 local militia, easily dispersed. The destruction of the village and its commercial infrastructure destroyed
• July 16 – Battle of Stony Point
• July 22 – Battle of Minisink
• July 24 – August 14 – Penobscot Expedition
• August 19 – Battle of Paulus Hook
• September 16 – October 18 Siege of Savannah
• September 21 – Battle of Baton Rouge
• September 23 – Battle of Flamborough Head
• December 1779 – May 1780 Continental Army in fifth winter quarters at Morristown

1780s

1780

• January 15 – Congress establishes the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture to provide for final adjudication of appeals from state court prize cases involving disposition of ships and cargo allegedly seized from the British.
• January 16 – Battle of Cape St. Vincent
• January 28 – A stockade known as Fort Nashborough is founded on the banks of the Cumberland River. Two years later the site is renamed Nashville.
• February 1 – Some 8,000 British forces under General Henry Clinton arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, from New York.
• February 1 – New York cedes to Congress its western claims, including territory west of Lake Ontario. In 1792 New York will sell the Erie Triangle to Pennsylvania
• February 3 – Battle of Young’s House
• March 14 – Bombardment of Fort Charlotte: After a two-week siege, Spanish general, colonial governor of Louisiana, and Viceroy of New Spain Bernardo de Gálvez captures Fort Charlotte, taking the port of Mobile (in present-day Alabama) from the British. Fort Charlotte was the last remaining British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans in Spanish Louisiana. Its fall drove the British from the western reaches of West Florida and reduced the British military presence in West Florida to its capital, Pensacola.
• March 29-May 12 – Siege of Charleston
• April 8 – Siege of Charleston: British Army troops under General Henry Clinton and naval forces under Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot besiege Charleston, South Carolina. British ships sail past Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island to occupy Charleston Harbor. Washington will order reinforcements to Charleston, but the city falls on May 12 in what is arguably the worst American defeat of the war.
• May 6 – Siege of Charleston: Fort Moultrie falls to the British.
• April 2 – Siege of Charleston: American General Benjamin Lincoln surrenders Charleston to the British. The British lose 255 men while capturing a large American garrison.
• April 14 – Battle of Monck’s Corner
• May 6 – Battle of Lenud’s Ferry
• May 25-August 4 – Bird’s invasion of Kentucky
• May 29 – Battle of Waxhaws: A clash between Continental Army forces under Abraham Buford and a mainly Loyalist force led by Banastre Tarleton occurs near Lancaster, South Carolina in the Waxhaws area (close to present-day Buford). The British destroyed the American forces.
• June 7 – Battle of Connecticut Farms
• June 10 – Battle of Mobley’s Meeting House
• June 20 – Battle of Ramsour’s Mill
• June 23 – Battle of Springfield. With the attempted British invasion of New Jersey stopped at Connecticut Farms and Springfield, major fighting in the North ends.
• June 27 – Robert Morris is appointed Superintendent of Finance, a post akin to Prime Minister, by Congress.
• July 11 – Expédition Particulière
• July 12 – Battle of Williamson’s Plantation
• July 20–21 – Battle of Bull’s Ferry
• July 21 – Battle of Colson’s Mill
• August 1 – Battle of Rocky Mount
• August 6 – Battle of Hanging Rock
• August 8 – Battle of Piqua
• August 16 – Battle of Camden. British General Cornwallis gains a humiliating victory over Gates in South Carolina.
• August 18 – Battle of Fishing Creek
• August 18 – Battle of Musgrove Mill
• August 28 – Battle of Black Mingo
• September 21 – Battle of Wahab’s Plantation
• September 23 – John André captured and the treason of Benedict Arnold is exposed
• September 26 – Battle of Charlotte
• October 7 – Battle of Kings Mountain
• October 16 – Royalton Raid
• October 19 – Battle of Klock’s Field
• November 9 – Battle of Fishdam Ford
• November 20 – Battle of Blackstock’s Farm
• December – Continental Army enters sixth winter with encampments in New York’s Hudson Highlands and Pompton and Morristown, New Jersey

1781

• The Future King William IV, the only active member of the British Royal Family to visit the former 13 colonies, takes up residence in the Rose and Crown Tavern on Staten Island.
• January 1–29 – Pennsylvania Line Mutiny
• January 1–19 – Raid on Richmond
• January 17 – Battle of Cowpens
• January 20 – Pompton Mutiny
• February 24 – Pyle’s Massacre
• March 1 – Articles of Confederation ratified
• March 8 – Skirmish at Waters Creek
• March 15 – Battle of Guilford Court House
• March 16 – Battle of Cape Henry
• April 25 – Battle of Blandford
• April 25 – Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill
• April 27 – Action at Osborne’s
• May 22-June 6 – Siege of Augusta
• May 22-June 19 – Siege of Ninety-Six
• June 26 – Battle of Spencer’s Ordinary
• July 6 – Battle of Green Spring
• July 9–24 – Francisco’s Fight
• September 5 – Battle of the Chesapeake
• September 6 – Battle of Groton Heights
• September 8 – Battle of Eutaw Springs
• October 19 – The British surrender at Yorktown
• December 31 – Bank of North America chartered
• December – Continental Army returns to Hudson Highlands and Morristown New Jersey for its seventh winter encampment.

1782

• February 27 – The British House of Commons votes against further war, informally recognizing American independence.
• March 8 – Gnadenhutten massacre
• March 22 – Battle of Little Mountain
• May 25-June 12 – Crawford expedition
• August 15–17 – Siege of Bryan Station
• August 19 – Battle of Blue Licks
• August 27 – Battle of the Combahee River
• September 11–13 – Siege of Fort Henry (1876)
• November – Continental Army moves into its eighth and final winter quarters, at the New Windsor Cantonment and in the Hudson Highlands
• November 30 – preliminary Articles of Peace are signed by British negotiator Richard Oswald and representatives of the United States of America.
• December 14 – British evacuate Charleston, South Carolina
• December 27 – Last skirmish of the conflict takes place near Cedar Bridge Tavern in Barnegat Township, New Jersey.

1783

• March 10–15 – Newburgh Conspiracy
• June 20–24 – Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783
• September 3 – The Treaty of Paris (1783) ends the American Revolutionary War
• November 25 – The British evacuate New York, marking the end of British rule, and General George Washington triumphantly returns with the Continental Army.
• December 23 – George Washington’s resignation as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army

1784

• January 14 – The Treaty of Paris is ratified by the Congress.
  • Jay–Gardoqui Treaty
• April 9 – The Treaty of Paris is ratified by the British
• May 12 – Ratified treaties are exchanged in Paris between the two nations.
• August – “The state of Frankland,” later known as Franklin, secedes from North Carolina
• November 1 – Robert Morris resigns as Superintendent of Finance and is not replaced.

1785

• May – Congress refuses admission of the State of Franklin to the Union
• November 28 – Treaty of Hopewell

1786

• August 29 – June 1787 – Shays’ Rebellion
• September 11–14 – Annapolis Convention fails

1787

• July 13 – Northwest Ordinance

• May 25 – September 17 – Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
• December 7, 12, 18- Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey ratify the Constitution

1788

• North Carolina reasserted it claim to its Overmountain region, at which time Franklin ceases to exist.
• Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia and New York ratify the Constitution
• United States Constitution ratified (June 21)
• November 2 – Cyrus Griffin resigns as “President of the United States in Congress Assembled”, and with the exceptions of John Jay and John Knox remaining as Secretaries of Foreign Affairs and War respectively; and Michael Hillegas remaining as Treasurer, the United States of America temporarily ceases to exist.
• The first federal Elections for the House of Representatives begin.
• United States presidential election (December 15, 1788 – January 10, 1789)

1789

• March 2 – Philip Pell, only member in attendance, adjourns the Congress of the Confederation sine die
• March 4 – Members of the 1st United States Congress begin to take their seats, Federal Hall New York
• April 1 – House of Representatives first achieves a quorum; elects its officers
• April 6 – Senate first achieves a quorum and elects its officers
• April 6 – Joint session of Congress counts the Electoral College ballots, certifies that George Washington has been unanimously elected President of the United States
• April 6 – John Adams receives 34 of 69 votes, is elected as Vice president
• April 30 – George Washington is inaugurated as the nation’s first president at Federal Hall in New York City
• July 4 – Hamilton tariff
• July – Charles Thomson resigns as secretary of Congress and hands over the Great Seal, bringing an end to the Confederation Congress
• September 24 – Judiciary Act of 1789
• September 25 – Congress approves twelve articles of amendment to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights
• November 21 – North Carolina becomes the 12th state to ratify the Constitution, with a vote of 194–77

1790s

1791

• Bill of Rights ratified (December 15)

1795

• Jay Treaty ratified in June toward resolving post Revolution tensions between the United States and Great Britain. First use of arbitration in modern diplomatic history for Canada–United States border disputes

1796

• Six Northwest Territory forts and two Upstate New York forts that remained under British control are ceded to the United States

• See also
• References
• Further reading
• External links

1790s

Presidency of George Washington

• 1790 – Rhode Island ratifies the Constitution and becomes 13th state
• 1791 – The Bill of Rights, comprising the first ten amendments to the Constitution, is adopted.^[1]
• 1791 – First Bank of the United States chartered
• 1791 – Vermont becomes the 14th state^[2] (formerly the independent Vermont Republic)
• 1792 – Kentucky becomes the 15th state^[3] (formerly Kentucky County, Virginia)
• 1792 – U.S. presidential election, 1792: George Washington reelected president, John Adams reelected vice president
• 1793 – Eli Whitney invents cotton gin
• March 4, 1793 – President Washington and Vice President Adams begin second terms
• 1793 – Yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia
• 1793 – Fugitive Slave Act passed^[4]
• 1793 – Chisholm v. Georgia (2 US 419 1793) paves way for passage of 11th Amendment
• 1794 – Whiskey Rebellion^[5]
• 1794 – Battle of Fallen Timbers^[6]
• 1795 – Treaty of Greenville
• 1795 – Jay’s Treaty
• 1795 – 11th Amendment “ratified by 12 of the then 15 states”^[7]
• 1795 – Pinckney’s Treaty (also called Treaty of San Lorenzo)^[8]
• 1796 – Tennessee becomes the 16th state^[9] (formerly part of North Carolina)
• 1796 – Treaty of Tripoli
• 1796 – U.S. presidential election, 1796: John Adams is elected president, Thomas Jefferson vice president

Presidency of John Adams

• 1797 – John Adams becomes the second President (until 1801);^[10] in Philadelphia; Thomas Jefferson becomes Vice President
• 1798 – Alien and Sedition Acts^[11]
• 1798 – the Quasi-War starts
• 1798 and 1799 – Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions^[12]
• 1798 – Charles Brockden Brown‘s novel Wieland published
• 1799 – Charles Brockden Brown‘s novel Edgar Huntly published
• 1799 – Fries’s Rebellion
• 1799 – Logan Act
• 1799 – George Washington dies

1800s

• 1800 – Library of Congress founded
• 1800 – Convention of 1800 ends the Quasi-War
• 1800 – U.S. presidential election, 1800: Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tie in the Electoral College.
• 1801 – Thomas Jefferson elected president by the House of Representatives; Aaron Burr elected vice president.
• 1801 – President Adams appoints John Marshall Chief Justice

Presidency of Thomas Jefferson

• 1801 – Thomas Jefferson becomes the third President; Aaron Burr becomes Vice President
• 1803 – Marbury v. Madison (5 US 137 1803) allows Supreme Court to invalidate law passed by the United States Congress for first time: the Judiciary Act of 1789
• 1803 – Louisiana Purchase
• 1803 – Ohio, formerly part of Connecticut, becomes the 17th state
• 1804 – 12th Amendment ratified
• 1804 – New Jersey abolishes slavery
• 1804 – Burr-Hamilton duel (Alexander Hamilton dies)
• 1804 – Lewis and Clark set out
• 1804 – U.S. presidential election, 1804: Thomas Jefferson reelected president; George Clinton elected vice president
• 1805 – President Jefferson begins second term; George Clinton becomes Vice President
• 1807 – Embargo Act of 1807
• 1807 – Robert Fulton invents steamboat
• 1807 – U.S. slave trade with Africa ends ^[13]
• 1808 – U.S. presidential election, 1808: James Madison elected president, George Clinton reelected vice president

Presidency of James Madison

• 1809 – James Madison becomes the fourth President; Vice President Clinton begins second term
• 1809 – Non-Intercourse Act (March 1)

1810s

• 1810 – Fletcher v. Peck (10 US 87 1810) marks first time U.S. Supreme Court invalidates a state legislative act
• 1811 – First Bank of the United States charter expires
• 1812 – Vice President Clinton dies
• 1812 – War of 1812, an offshoot of the Napoleonic Wars, begins
• 1812 – Daniel Webster elected to the United States Congress
• 1812 – Louisiana becomes the 18th state
• 1812 – U.S. presidential election, 1812: James Madison reelected president; Elbridge Gerry elected vice president
• 1813 – President Madison begins second term; Elbridge Gerry becomes Vice President
• 1813-1814 – Creek War
• 1814 – British troops burn Washington, D.C. but are forced back at Baltimore
• 1814 – Vice President Gerry dies
• 1814 – Treaty of Ghent settles War of 1812
• 1815 – Battle of New Orleans
• 1816 – Indiana becomes the 19th state
• 1816 – Second Bank of the United States chartered
• 1816 – U.S. presidential election, 1816: James Monroe elected president, Daniel D. Tompkins vice president

Presidency of James Monroe

• • 1817 – James Monroe becomes the fifth President; Daniel D. Tompkins, Vice President
  • 1817 – Rush-Bagot Treaty
  • 1817 – Harvard Law School founded
  • 1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th state
  • 1818 – Cumberland Road opened
  • 1818 – Illinois becomes the 21st state
  • 1818 – Jackson Purchase in Kentucky
  • 1819 – Panic of 1819
  • 1819 – Adams-Onís Treaty, including acquisition of Florida
  • 1819 – McCulloch v. Maryland (17 US 316 1819) prohibits state laws from infringing upon federal constitutional authority
  • 1819 – Dartmouth College v. Woodward (17 US 518 1819) protects principle of honoring contracts and charters
  • 1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd state in the U.S.

FEDERALIST ERA
George Washington
1789-1849

 

2004

— Colby Buzzell