Historical, Social, and Cultural Events

Date

Literary Events

Extreme dates of Asian migration to the North America

50,000–12,000 B.C.

Leif Ericsson establishes a settlement in Newfoundland

1001 A.D.

Marco Polo travels to China from Italy

1275–1295

Rise of the Aztec empire

c. 1300

First outbreak of the Black Death in Europe

1347

Columbus discovers America

1492

John Cabot(Giovanni Caboto) explores North America

1497

The Protestant Reformation begins in Germany when Martin Luther postshis 95 theses

1517

Smallpox decimates Indian populations

1518–1530

Magellan circumnavigates the globe

1519–1522

Tenochtitlán surrenders to Cortés

1521

Verrazzano explores the eastern coast of the present-day United States

1524

Cabeza deVaca arrives shipwrecked in Tampa Bay

1528

Pizarro brothers conquer the Incas in Peru, and sail along the Pacific coast of South America claiming territories for Spain

1550s

Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England

1558

St. Augustine, Florida founded

1565

Martin Frobisher’s unsuccessful search for a Northwest Passage to Asia

1576–1578

The English attempt to establish a colony on the island of Roanoke

The English defeat the Spanish Armada

1588

Powhatan forms an Indian confederacy numbering approximately 9,000

late 1500s

James I becomes King of England

1603

Samuel de Champlain explores the New England coast, the St. Lawrence River, and upstate New York, and founds Quebec

1603–1613

The English settle Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World

1607

Henry Hudson discovers the Hudson River and Hudson Bay

1609–1610

The first step toward slavery in the future United States occurs when twenty Africans arrive in Jamestown; the English colonies elect a representative assembly; the House of Burgesses had the authority to make laws for the colony

1619

The Pilgrims (Puritan Separatists) establish a settlement in Plymouth on the coast of present-day southeastern Massachusetts

1620.

William Bradford succeeds John Carver as governor of Plymouth Colony

1621.

Dutch settle Manhattan.

1624

John Smith publishes General History of Virginia.

Charles I becomes King of England.

1625

King Charles I dissolves Parliament and begins ruling as an absolute monarch; persecution of the Puritans increases precipitating a second wave of Puritan migration.

1629

Massachusetts Bay Colony founded by non-Separatist Puritans.

1630

William Bradford begins writing Of Plymouth Plantation.

The Calverts found Maryland.

1632

Roger Williams founds Rhode Island.

1635

Harvard founded as a training center for ministers.

1636

Pequot War breaks out.

1637

Thomas Morton publishes New English Canaan

The first colonial printing press is established at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1639

Sugar boom in Caribbean leads to increased importation of slaves.

1640s

The English Civil War begins.

1642

Anne Bradstreet’s first collection of poetry, The Tenth Muse, is published in London.

1650

First Quakers arrive in Massachusetts.

1656

England passes the first of the Navigation Acts; others followed in 1663and 1673.

1660

New England Puritans adopt the Halfway Covenant.

1662

Michael Wigglesworth publishes Day of Doom.

King Philip’s War erupts between New Englanders and an alliance of Indian tribes led by Metacomet (King Philip).

1675

Bacon’s Rebellion occurs in Virginia.

1676

William Penn works with Quaker founder George Fox to create a Quaker colony in America.

1681

1682

Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity becomes a best seller.

French Calvinists or Huguenots escape persecution in France and settle in the English colonies in America.

1685

The Glorious Revolution in England.

1688

Coode’s rebellion in Maryland.

1689

Salem witch trials begin.

1692

William and Mary College founded for the training of Anglican ministers in Williamsburg, Virginia.

1693

Slave importations increase as the Royal African Company of England loses its monopoly on the slave trade.

1697

Yale College founded.

1701

1702

Cotton Mather’s Magnalia Christi Americana is published.

England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales unite as Great Britain.

1707

George I assumes the throne of England after the death of Queen Anne.

1714

Cotton Mather starts smallpox inoculations.

1720

George II begins his reign, which extends until 1760.

1727

The Great Awakening seizes America.

1730s–1740s

General James Oglethorpe founds Georgia.

1732

Benjamin Franklin publishes Poor Richard’s Almanack.

1732–1757

Stono Rebellion, the largest slave rebellion of the colonial period, occurs.

1739

The French and Indian War.

1754–1763

King George III ascends to the throne of England.

1760

Mason-Dixon line surveyed.

1763–1767

England passes the Sugar Act and Currency Act, which antagonizes colonists.

1764

The Stamp Act and Quartering Act further antagonize colonists. The Sons of Liberty, a resistance group, is formed.

1765

The Townshend Acts increases the number of taxable items in the colonies.

1767

Thomas Godfrey’s The Prince of Parthia, the first play written by an American and produced in the colonies, is staged in Philadelphia.

British troops arrive in Boston.

1768

Fr. Junípero Serra establishes nine Spanish missions in California.

1769–1784

Boston Massacre.

1770

Gaspee Affair.

1772

The Boston Tea Party.

1773

The Coercive or Intolerable Acts: the Boston Port Bill, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and a new Quartering Act; Meeting of the First Continental Congress.

1774

War for American Independence; battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill fought; meeting of the Second Continental Congress.

1775–1781

1776

Declaration of Independence; Thomas Paine’s Common Sense published.

British General John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops at Saratoga.

1777

French increase assistance and recognize America as a sovereign nation.

1778

Spain declares war on Great Britain.

1779

The British seize Charleston.

1780

General Charles Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown and the war ends.

1781

Holland recognizes United States independence.

1782

The Treaty of Paris formally ends the American Revolution.

1783

Noah Webster publishes The American Spelling Book.

The Land Ordinance divided the western territory into ten self-governing districts.

1784

Shays’s Rebellion in Massachusetts.

1786–1787

Representatives from five states meet in Annapolis.

1786

The Constitutional Convention meets in Philadelphia and in May passes the Constitution; Congress adopts the Northwest Ordinance.

1787

James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay write a series of essays called The Federalist Papers; Royall Tyler’s The Contrast is produced in New York.

George Washington elected first president; French Revolution begins.

1789

William Hill Brown publishes The Power of Sympathy, the first American novel.

First Bank of the United States chartered.

1791

Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin.

1793

The Whiskey Rebellion occurs in western Pennsylvania; Charles Willson Peale opens Peale’s Museum, the first museum in America.

1794

Pinckney’s Treaty signed with Spain.

1795

John Adams elected president.

1796

XYZ Affair; Alien and Sedition Acts passed.

1798

The Second Great Awakening.

late 1790s

Thomas Jefferson elected president; Library of Congress founded.

1800

President Adams’s “midnight appointments.”

1801

Marbury v. Madison; the Louisiana Purchase doubles the size of the United States.

1803

Jefferson reelected president.

1804

Lewis and Clark expedition explores the West.

1804–1806

The Prophet, a Shawnee, leads an Indian spiritual revival.

1805

British attack of the Chesapeake riles Americans; Embargo Act passed.

1806

James Madison elected president; importation of slaves banned.

1808

The Non-Intercourse Act reopens trade with all nations but Great Britain and France; Tecumseh forms an Indian confederacy.

1809

Washington Irving publishes Knickerbocker’s History of New York.

Macon’s Bill No. 2 reopens trade with Great Britain and France.

1810

William Henry Harrison is the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe.

1811

The United States declares war on Great Britain.

1812

Tecumseh killed at the Battle of the Thames in Canada; Captain Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory on Lake Erie gives the U.S. control of the Great Lakes.

1813

Creek War fought in the South.

1813–1814

The British burn Washington, D.C.; Francis Scott Key writes “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the British attack Baltimore; The Hartford Convention is organized by New England Federalists; the Treaty of Ghent ends the war.

1814

Andrew Jackson is the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, which occurs before word of the treaty reaches the troops.

1815

Second Bank of the United States; James Monroe elected president.

1816

Erie Canal constructed.

1817–1825

Rush-Bagot agreement further improves Anglo-American relations.

1817

Panicand depression; McCulloch v. Maryland decided by the Supreme Court

1819

1819–1820

Washington Irving publishes The Sketch Book.

Missouri Compromise; Monroe elected without opposition; Congress passes a law defining participation in the slave trade as piracy.

1820

Mexico wins independence from Spain.

1821

Denmark Vesey’s conspiracy fails in Charleston.

1822

Monroe Doctrine.

1823

James Fenimore Cooper publishes The Pioneers, introducing The Leather-Stocking Tales.

John Quincy Adams elected president.

1824

American Society for Promotion of Temperance founded.

1826

Congress passes the “tariff of abominations”; Andrew Jackson elected president.

1828

Noah Webster publishes An American Dictionary of the English Language.

Mexico abolishes slavery, but rarely enforces the law in Texas.

1829

Webster and Hayne debate; Joseph Smith publishes the Book of Mormon.

1830

The systematic removal of Indians from the South.

1830–1838

Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion; American Anti-Slavery Society founded to coordinate the activities of a loose affiliation of anti-slavery societies.

1831

William Lloyd Garrison publishes the first issue of The Liberator, an abolitionist journal.

Jackson vetoes recharter of Bank of the United States.

1832

Nullification crisis.

1832–1833

Santa Anna establishes himself as dictator of Mexico.

1834

Roger B. Taney named Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

1835

The Seminole War.

1835–1842

Texas declares independence from Mexico; Martin Van Buren elected president.

1836

Emerson publishes Nature.

Depression.

1837–1843

Horace Mann becomes the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education.

1837

Emerson delivers “The American Scholar” before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College.

William Henry Harrison elected president; the Independent Treasury Act passed by Congress.

1840

Transcendentalists operate Brook Farm.

1841–1847

Large-scale migration to Oregon.

1843

Tyler conducts secret negotiations with Texas.

1843–1844

Samuel F.B. Morse sends the first telegraph message; James Polk elected president; Joseph Smith murdered; the Methodist Church divides into northern and southern organizations.

1844

Edgar Allen Poe publishes “The Raven.”

1845

Frederick Douglas publishes his autobiography.

Congress declares war on Mexico.

1846

Zachary Taylor elected president; Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organize a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY; the California Gold Rush begins when traces of gold are found on James Sutter’s ranch.

1848

Compromise of1850.

1850

Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes The Scarlet Letter.

The New York Times established.

1851

Herman Melville publishes Moby Dick

American Party (Know-Nothings) formed; Franklin Pierce elected president.

1852

Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Gadsden Purchase.

1853

Kansas-Nebraska Act; Republican Party formed.

1854

1855

Walt Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass.

“Bleeding Kansas.”

1855–1856

In the Senate chamber, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts unconscious; John Brown and followers are responsible for the Pottawatomie massacre; James Buchanan elected president.

1856

Dred Scott v. Sanford decided by the Supreme Court; the Panic of1857.

1857

Lecompton Constitution defeated; Lincoln-Douglas debates.

1858

John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.

1859

Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, elected president.

1860

South Carolina secedes from the Union.

1860

The Confederate States of America formed; Fort Sumter seized by Confederates; Confederates victorious at First Battle of Bull Run.

1861

Grant victorious at the Battle of Shiloh; Confederacy passes the Conscription Act; Confederates win Second Battle of Bull Run; McClellan defeats Lee at the Battle of Antietam; the Homestead Act lead to rapid development of the West; the Morrill Act transfers public land to state governments.

1862

Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation; Battle of Gettysburg fought; Grant captures Vicksburg after a six-week siege; New York draft riots break out; Lincoln outlines plan for reconstruction.

1863

The Wilderness Campaign; Lincoln reelected in a landslide; General Sherman begins his march from Atlanta to the sea; Lincoln vetoes Wade-Davis Reconstruction Bill.

1864

The House passes the Thirteenth Amendment; Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox; Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth; Freedman’s Bureau established; Congress establishes the Joint Committee on Reconstruction.

1865

Congress passes the Civil Rights Bill over Johnson’s veto; Republicans gain in congressional elections; the Western cattle industry booms; National Labor Union founded; Ku Klux Klan organized.

1866

John Greenleaf Whittier publishes Snow-Bound.

Congressional Reconstruction begins; Seward negotiates purchase of Alaska.

1867

Johnson tried for impeachment; Fourteenth Amendment ratified; Grant elected president.

1868.

Louisa May Alcott publishes Little Women

Congress passes Fifteenth Amendment; Transcontinental railroad completed; Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor founded; Cincinnati Red Stockings become the first professional baseball team; Rutgers beats Princeton in the first intercollegiate football game.

1869

Mark Twain publishes The Innocents Abroad

John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil Company of Ohio; elevated railroads begin operating in New York City.

1870

Bret Harte publishes Luck of Roaring Camp.

Amnesty Act returns political rights to Confederate leaders; Grant reelected.

1872

The Great Buffalo Slaughter.

1872–1874

Carnegie Steel founded; the Women’s Christian Temperance Union founded; Comstock Law signed by Grant.

1873

Financial panic and depression.

1873–1877

Democrats win control of the House.

1874

Civil Rights Act; Mississippi Plan carries Democrats to state-wide victory.

1875

Rutherford Hayes elected president in a disputed victory resolved with the Compromise of 1877; Battle of Little Big Horn; Nez Percé evade United States army; Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone; Central Park is completed in New York City; Baseball’s National League founded.

1876

Mark Twain publishes Tom Sawyer.

The Great Railroad Strike leaves one hundred dead; Thomas Edison inventsthe phonograph.

1877

Samoan Treaty.

1878

Henry James publishes Daisy Miller.

Edison develops the incandescent light bulb; Exodusters migrate to Kansas.

1879

Henry George publishes Progress and Poverty.

James A. Garfield elected president; James Bonsack invents a cigarette-rolling machine; the Metropolitan Museum of New York City opens.

1880

President Garfield assassinated; Booker T. Washington founds Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama; Boston Symphony founded.

1881

Henry James publishes Portrait of a Lady.

1881-1882

Whitman publishes what many would come to consider the definitive edition of Leaves of Grass.

Edison lights the Wall Street district; Chinese Exclusion Act.

1882

The Civil Service or Pendleton Act passed; Railroads establish standard time zones; Brooklyn Bridge opens.

1883

Grover Cleveland elected president.

1884

Mark Twain publishes Huckleberry Finn.

The world’s first skyscraper built in Chicago; First all-black professional baseball team

1885

William Dean Howells publishes The Rise of Silas Lapham.

American Federation of Labor organized; Haymarket bombing in Chicago; Dawes Severalty Act passes; Statue of Liberty dedicated.

1886

Interstate Commerce Act passed.

1887

Benjamin Harrison elected president; nation’s first electric trolley begins operation in Richmond, Virginia.

1888

James G. Blaine organizes the first Pan-American Congress; Oklahoma opened to settlement; Jane Addams opens Hull House in Chicago.

1889

Ghost dances and Wounded Knee.

1890