US History Timeline

US History Timeline Name ______

Directions: 1. Use textbooks and other print resources and the Internet to locate and identify the following historic events, then write the correct year (or approximate range of years) on the blank space provided. 2. When you are done, construct a timeline and decorate it with pictures, maps, artifacts, and other images placing each of the events in their proper order.

______Abraham Lincoln is elected president. ______Boston Massacre: British troops fire into a mob, killing five men and leading to intense public protests. ______Boston Tea Party: Group of colonial patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians board three ships in Boston harbor and dump more than 300 crates of tea overboard as a protest against the British tea tax ______Cherokee Indians are forced to move to Oklahoma, along "The Trail of Tears." They are followed soon after by the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole and ______Christopher Columbus, financed by Spain, makes the first of four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. He lands in the Bahamas (Oct. 12). ______Constitutional Convention, made up of delegates from 12 of the original 13 colonies, meets in Philadelphia to draft the U.S. Constitution ______English seize New Amsterdam (city and colony) from the Dutch and rename it New York ______Fighting at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts (known as the Battles of Lexington and Concord), marks the beginning of the American Revolution. ______First people (called Paleo-Indians) cross from Siberia to Alaska and begin to move into North America. ______First ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, are ratified ______French and Indian Wars between England and France. The French are defeated and lose their lands in Canada and the American Midwest. ______French settlers move into Mississippi and Louisiana. ______George Washington is unanimously elected president of the United States in a vote by state electors ______Jamestown, Virginia, the first English settlement in North America, is founded by Captain John Smith ______Lewis and Clark explore what is now the northwestern United States. ______Mammoths and other big game disappear and Paleo-Indians begin to gather plants for food. ______Many different Indian cultures develop throughout North America ______Norse seaman Leif Ericsson lands in Newfoundland, which he calls Vinland. ______North American Indians begin using stone to grind food and to hunt bison and smaller animals ______Peter Minuit buys Manhattan island for the Dutch from Man-a-hat-a Indians for goods worth $24. The island is renamed New Amsterdam. ______Pilgrims from England arrive at Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the Mayflower. ______Saint Augustine, Florida, settled by the Spanish, becomes the first permanent European colony in North America. ______Texans fighting for independence from Mexico are defeated at the Alamo. ______The Civil War begins. ______The Declaration of Independence is approved July 4 by the Continental Congress (made up of representatives from the American colonies). ______The discovery of gold in California leads to a "rush" of 80,000 people to the West in search of gold. ______The Liberator, a newspaper opposing slavery, is published in Boston. ______Missouri Compromise: In an effort to maintain the balance between free and slave states, Maine (formerly part of Massachusetts) is admitted as a free state so that Missouri can be admitted as a slave state; except for Missouri, slavery is prohibited in the Louisiana Purchase lands north of latitude 36°30' ______The Monroe Doctrine warns European countries not to interfere in the Americas. ______Louisiana Purchase: United States agrees to pay France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory, which extends west from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and comprises about 830,000 sq mi. As a result, the U.S. nearly doubles in size. ______Spain agrees to cede Florida to the United States ______The U.S. capital is moved from Philadelphia to Washington, DC ______U.S. war with Mexico: Mexico is defeated and the United States takes control of the Republic of Texas and of Mexican territories in the West. ______War of 1812 with Great Britain: British forces burn the Capitol and White House. Francis Scott Key writes the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner."