Milestones in American History
Aus ZUM-Unterrichten
The beginnings
| 1492 | 'The Conquest of Paradise' - Christopher Columbus landed on the West Indies |
| 1620 | the Pilgrim Fathers - 102 persons - (Mayflower Compound) landed in present-day Massachusetts ('Plimoth Plantation') |
| 1692 | The Salem (Mass.) 'witch-hunt' (=> Arthur Miller The Crucible) |
| Dec. 1773 | Boston Tea Party: angry crowds throw tea from a British ship into the sea |
| 1775 | Paul Revere's Midnight Ride - goldsmith and spy for the colonial army, he was the one to warn the colonists of the approaching British troups, led to the first major battle between the colonists and the British in Lexington (Mass.) |
| 1775-82 | American War of Independence (or Revolution) |
| 1776 July 4th | Declaration of Independence (mainly written by Thomas Jefferson) |
| 1787 | The American Constitution |
| 1789-97 | George Washington, first President of the USA, military leader of the War of Independence (or Revolution) |
| 1801-09 | Thomas Jefferson, third President and author of the 'Declaration of Independence' |
| 1861-1865 | Abraham Lincoln (Rep.) President |
- main article: Road to Independence
The Civil War
- main article: Civil Rights Movement/Slavery and Civil War
Native Americans
| 1830 | President Jackson's 'Indian Removal Act': the US government buys land from the Indians (3 cents per acre) and gives them reservations: Gold has been found on Indian ground |
| 1838 | The Cherokees, who resist the Act, are rounded up by 7000 soldiers and driven westward to Oklahoma: 'Trail of tears' (4000 Indians died). |
| 1851 | Chief Little Crow sells Dakota to the white man. He was drunken. Forts are built along the Bozeman Trail, which crosses the land of the Sioux. After victorious battles of the Sioux tribes (chief Red Cloud) |
| 1868 | Treaty of Fort Laramie: No white man allowed to settle in the Sioux and Cheyenne reservations (Dakota=Indian word for friend). But |
| 1870s | Gold found in the Black Hills, the holy mountains of the Indians: more and more people come to dig for gold - a railway is built through Sioux land - buffalo are killed in large numbers (Buffalo Bill!) |
| 1876 (June, 26) | Battle at Little Big Horn River: Indians beat General Custer's Seventh Cavalry, their greatest victory ever. But during the following years many Sioux and Cheyenne give up and flee to Canada. |
| 1890 | Sioux chief Sitting Bull arrested and murdered, many of his people flee to Wounded Knee Creek, where their camp is surrounded by troups. The Indians are disarmed, their tepees searched for knives and axes, then suddenly, some say accidentally, the sound of a gunshot is heard, which causes the soldiers to shoot and about 350 Indians get killed. |
| By this time only 200 000 Indians were left (from more than a million in the 17th century) and no more buffalo (75 millions in 1830); between 1790 and 1891 2283 US soldiers were killed and 400 000 Indians. More than 370 treaties between the US government and the Indian tribes were broken. |
- The Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan - an American Indian Movement (AIM) protest in 1972
20th century
| 1901-1909 | Theodore Roosevelt (Rep.) |
| 1913-1921 | Wodrow Wilson (Dem.) |
| 1917 | The USA join World War I |
| 1933-45 | F.D.Roosevelt (Dem.) - from the 'New Deal' (1933) to the 'Invasion' (1944) |
| 1929 (Oct 29th) | Black Friday: Breakdown of stock market |
| 1945-53 | H.S.Truman (Dem.), Hiroshima |
| 1953-1961 | D.D.('I like Ike') Eisenhower (Rep.), General of World War II
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| 1961-1963 | (assassinated) John F.Kennedy (Dem.) |
| 1963-1969 | Lyndon B. Johnson, former Vice-President |
| 1960s | Civil Rights Movement:
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| 1969 (July 20th) | First man on the moon (Neill Armstrong) |
| 1969-1974 | Richard ('Tricky Dick') Nixon (Rep.)
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| 1974 | Gerald Ford (Rep.) - Vice-President |
| 1977-81 | Jimmy Carter (Dem.) Peanuts farmer from the South |
| 1981-1989 | Ronald Reagan (Rep.) former actor - mostly westerners |
| 1989 - 1993 | George Bush (Rep.) - former Vice-President
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| 1993 - 2001 | Bill Clinton (Dem.) - former Governor of Arkansas |
| 2001 - 2009 | George W. Bush (Rep.) |
| 2009 - 2017 | Barack Obama (Dem.) |
| 2007 - ... | Donald Trump (Rep.) |
| ... to be continued ... |
