1803 |
Louisiana Territory is purchased from France
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1804-1805 |
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explore the Louisiana Territory.
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1806 |
Congress authorizes the construction of a federal financed paved road, which would become known as the National Road (today is known as U.S. 40/Interstate 70).
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1812 |
The U.S. declares war on Great Britain.
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1812-1815 |
War of 1812
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1814 |
British capture and burn Washington D.C.
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1815 |
War of 1812 ends with the Treaty of Ghent. A wave of immigration begins.
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1817-1898 |
Indian Wars
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1825 |
Erie Canal opens.
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1830 |
Indian Removal Act grants authority to move Eastern Indians to Western lands.
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1845 |
Beginning this year and for the next several years, over one million Irish immigrants arrived in America.
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1846 |
U.S. declares war on Mexico.
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1848 |
U.S. Mexico War ends; Mexico cedes claims to Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada.
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1849 |
California Gold Rush begins.
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1861-1865 |
U. S. Civil War.
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1867 |
The U.S. purchases the Alaska Territory from Russia for $7.2 million.
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1869
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Suez Canal opens in Egypt linking the Mediterranean and Red seas. |
1898
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The U.S. declares war on Spain in April.
Both countries sign an armistice, ending the Spanish-American War in August.
United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Paris 1898, officially ending the Spanish-American War.
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1898-1902 |
Spanish-American War
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1914
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Principe assassinates Archduke Ferdinand of the Ottoman Empire in June.
World War I begins as the Ottoman Empire declares war on Bosnia in July.
Panama Canal opens in August.
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1915 |
British liner Lusitanian sunk by German U-Boats, killing 128 American passengers.
Girl Scouts established in June.
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1916 |
Boy Scouts established in May.
The U.S. National Park Service established in August.
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1917-1918 |
World War I
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1917 |
The U.S. enters World War I on the side of the Allies in April.
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1918 |
Allied and Central Powers sign an armistice, ending World War I in November.
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1919 |
Treaty of Versailles signed, ending World War I in June.
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1929 |
New York Stock Market crashes to an all-time low (referred to as "Black Tuesday"), signaling the start of the Great Depression in October.
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1939 |
Germany invades Poland; then France and Great Britain declare war on Germany in September; then Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Warsaw pact, keeping the Soviet Union out of World War II.
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1940 |
British evacuate over 300,000 soldiers from Dunkirk, France back across the English Channel and France surrenders to Germany in June.
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1941 |
Germany invades the Soviet Union in June.
In December, the Japanese forces attack the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; the U.S. declares war on Japan; Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S.
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1941-1945 |
World War II
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1944 |
Allied forces invade Normandy (referred to as "D-Day") on June 6; a German surprise attack begins the Battle of the Bulge followed by Allied forces pushing the German troops past the German border in December.
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1945 |
In August, the U.S. drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, followed by the second on Nagasaki, Japan.
In September, Japan unconditionally surrenders to the United States, ending World War II.
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1946 |
Winston Churchill proclaims "an iron curtain has swept across the continent (Europe)," beginning the Cold War in October.
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1947 |
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) established by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States in April.
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1950 |
The Korean War officially starts as North Korea invades South Korea.
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1950-1953 |
The Korean Conflict
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1952 |
The U.S. detonates the first thermonuclear device in November.
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1964 |
Segregation abolished in the United States in July.
The U.S. begins military presence in Vietnam in August.
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1964-1975 |
Vietnam War
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1969 |
American astronaut Neil Armstrong is the 1st human to walk on the Moon in July.
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1970 |
The U.S. begins withdrawing troops from Vietnam.
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1973 |
The U.S. and Vietnam sign a peace treaty, ending the Vietnam War in January; by March, the last of American forces leave Vietnam.
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1990-1991 |
Desert Shield/Desert Storm
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1992 |
The U.S. and Russia sign a treaty officially ending the Cold War.
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1999 |
Panama gains control of the Panama Canal from the United States.
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2001 |
On September 11, Al Qaeda terrorists crash three planes into the New York's World Trade Center and the U.S. Pentagon. Heroic passengers on fourth plane, United Flight 93, foil hijackers and plane.
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2002 |
On October 11, 2002, the U.S. Congress passes the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq.
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2003 |
Missile attacks on Baghdad mark the start of a U. S.-led campaign to topple the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. U. S. forces advance into central Baghdad in early April.
The National Human Genome Research Institute announces the successful completion of the Human Genome Project.
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2005 |
In August, hundreds of people are killed when Hurricane Katrina, the most destructive storm to hit the U. S. in decades, sweeps through gulf coast states. Much of the city of New Orleans is submerged by floodwaters.
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2008 |
Democratic Senator Barack Obama becomes the first black president of the United States.
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2011 |
U. S. forces kill Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in an operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in May.
The final Space Shuttle mission is completed with the landing of Atlantis on July 21, bringing about the end of the 30-year program.
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