Abolition Movement: After William Lloyd Garrison founded the American Anti-Slavery Society, a move to rid America of slavery took firm hold in the country. “Abolitionists” published literature to help the cause. Former slaves (like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth) became leading abolitionists.

American Revolutionary War: Highlights of the American Revolution, from the shots at Lexington and Concord to the British surrender at Yorktown.

Articles of Confederation: After the American colonies declared independence from Great Britain, in 1776, the founding fathers debated sixteen months about how the new country should be governed. They finally adopted “Articles of Confederation” which became the first national governing document, providing stability during the Revolutionary War years. The Articles, which created a “firm league of friendship” between the thirteen states, provided for a common national defense but did not create a strong national government. After the war was over, the country as a whole could not be effectively governed under the Articles. They were replaced by the U.S. Constitution.

Assassinations/Urban Riots: The 1960s marked a period of change and violence in the United States. President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. In 1968, Martin Luther King was killed in April; two months later Robert Kennedy, campaigning to become the Democratic candidate for President, was shot after winning the California primary. Upset about racial inequalities and the Vietnam War, protesters demonstrated on college campuses and rioted in American cities.

Boston Massacre: By March of 1770, many colonial Americans no longer wanted the British military in the colonies. On March 5th, a taunting mob in Boston threw hard-packed snowballs at British soldiers. Firing their muskets into the crowd, the soldiers killed and wounded several colonists. The incident brought the colonies and the mother country closer to war. John Adams, a future U.S. president, defended the British soldiers at trial.

Civil Rights Amendments: Following the Civil War, the United States passed the 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery), the 14th Amendment (ensuring equal protection under state law as well as federal law), and the 15th Amendment (allowing former male slaves the right to vote). Women were not given the right to vote until the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920.

(US) Constitution/Bill of Rights - Having shed Great Britain’s authority over them, Americans were in no hurry to create another strong government. The country’s leaders debated the pros and cons of states’ rights versus national rights. Creating, and ratifying, the Constitution was no easy matter. Those who opposed it were especially concerned about individual rights. To make sure the new central government did not overstep its boundaries, a Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments) was added to the Constitution.

Compromise of 1850: After the war with Mexico, America had vast new territories. Should they remain free or allow slavery? Henry Clay, who was the principal author of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, once against suggested a way to hold the Union together. As part of the plan, new territories would be organized in New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Utah without mention of slavery. When those territories applied for statehood, the inhabitants would decide whether they would be free or slave. California, admitted as a free state, tipped the balance in favor of free states. To cure that imbalance, Congress passed the disastrous Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which allowed even free blacks to be returned to southern slavery. During the following decade, it is estimated at least 10,000 African-Americans fled to Canada to prevent capture.

Cuban Missile Crisis: In October of 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union came dangerously close to nuclear war. For thirteen days the world waited while the two superpowers searched for a way out.

Declaration of Independence: In the summer of 1776, five men selected by the Second Continental Congress were selected to draft a document declaring the colonies’ independence from Great Britain. In this story, examine the original documents, including Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten draft with edits by Ben Franklin and John Adams. To get a unanimous vote on the Declaration, however, Jefferson had to delete his denunciation of slavery. Three weeks after the Declaration of Independence was signed, America issued the country’s first dollar bills.

Emancipation Proclamation: Abraham Lincoln, America’s 16th president, did what neither the drafters of the Declaration of Independence nor the framers of the Constitution were able to do: Declare that slavery was prohibited. But the Emancipation Proclamation had limited effect. Furthermore, Lincoln no longer had jurisdiction over seceded southern states. He was the President of the USA. Jefferson Davis was the President of the CSA (Confederate States of America). Notwithstanding, the Emancipation Proclamation remains one of America’s most treasured documents.

English Bill of Rights in the Colonies:

Flappers: The “Roaring Twenties,” and all they stood for, came to be defined by the “flappers.”

Gettysburg Address

Gettysburg (Battle)

Great Depression: After the Roaring Twenties, when people in America were relatively carefree, came the Great Depression, when people in the country weren’t sure where they would get their next dime or their next meal.

Holocaust: During World War II, Hitler and his political party intended to decimate the Jewish race. Poland, with its concentration camps (like Auschwitz) and its ruined cities (like Warsaw) was especially hard hit.

Home Front (During WWII): While men were fighting the war in Europe and in the Pacific, women were producing war materials in American factories. Children, who made their own sacrifices, were expected to help wherever possible. Propaganda posters, commissioned by the federal government, kept the country’s objectives in plain view while rationing of staples like food and gas was part of daily life.

Intolerable Acts After people in Boston dumped a shipment of tea into Boston Harbor (referred to thereafter as “The Boston Tea Party”), the British Parliament passed a series of laws intended to punish the colonists, principally in Massachusetts, for their defiant actions. Instead of intimidating the King’s subjects in America, the laws (dubbed “intolerable” by the colonists) helped to rally the people and ultimately led to the First Continental Congress where colonial representatives discussed their concerns about British rule.

Jim Crow Laws: American laws, upheld by the country’s Supreme Court, provided the basis for lawful segregation.

Korea: In the summer of 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. A major conflict, involving American troops, erupted. The differences between North and South Korea continue to this day.

Locke, John: An Englishman who believed in religious freedom and the ability of people to govern themselves, John Locke (1632-1704) and his writings greatly influenced America's founding fathers. He rejected the "divine right of kings" to rule a people. Instead, he wrote: "...we have reason to conclude that all peaceful beginnings of government have been laid in the consent of the people." The purpose of government was thus to protect the absolute rights of all people to life, freedom, and property. Government power, Locke said, should be equally divided into three government branches so politicians would not face the "temptation...to grasp at [absolute] power." The people had the right to rebel, and form a new government, if the government abused the rights of the people. Locke, unlike America's founding fathers, also believed that women (who, like men, have the ability to reason) should have an equal say. An unpopular concept, at that time in history, Locke (knowing he could be censored) wrote: "It may not be amiss [wrong] to offer new ones [ideas] when the old [traditions] are apt to lead men into mistakes, as this [idea] of paternal [fatherly] power probably has done, which seems so [eager] to place the power of parents over their children wholly in the father, as if the mother had no share in it; whereas, if we consult reason or revelation [the Bible], we shall find, she hath an equal title."

Louisiana Purchase: In one of his most memorable actions as President, Thomas Jefferson made a deal with Napoleon Bonaparte to purchase land previously owned by Spain, then owned by France, and known as the Louisiana Territory. After the Louisiana Purchase, President Jefferson charged his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to explore the land and find the most direct water route to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis joined with William Clark to undertake an ambitious expedition which turned out to be one of the most successful explorations of all time.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Mayflower Compact: By 1570, religious disagreements in Britain turned on how to free the Church of England from its remaining vestiges of Catholicism. In 1608, one group of people - the Pilgrims - believed they had to completely break with the Anglican Church. Also called “Separatists,” the Pilgrims left England and, by way of The Netherlands (where they had remained twelve years), eventually sailed on the Mayflower (where the men on board signed the Mayflower Compact), landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620. The Pilgrims on the Mayflower were not the same as the Puritans who settled Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Mexican War: After the fall of the Alamo, Texas was an independent Republic. But General Santa Anna wanted to reclaim the lost territory for his country. A war between Mexico and America resulted in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (in 1848) by which the United States purchased nearly one-third of the territory of the contiguous forty-eight states. Nine days before the treaty was signed, gold had been discovered in California.

Northwest Ordinance (land north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi)

Paine, Thomas In January of 1776, Thomas Paine, an American revolutionary, wrote Common Sense. Published anonymously, his political pamphlet blamed King George III for much of the colonists’ suffering and encouraged the people to declare independence from Great Britain. His writing stirred the colonists to do what had never been done before: Create a country where the people were sovereign, the constitution was written, and the government had a system of checks and balances to hold those in power accountable. Later, in his pamphlet The American Crisis, Paine famously declared: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” His words of encouragement to stay the course provided inspiration for the colonists as they fought to achieve, not merely declare, independence.

Proclamation of 1763

Prohibition: The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” in America and its territories. Because the amendment itself had no enforcement provisions, a Prohibition Law (called the Volstead Act) was passed, giving police agencies sweeping powers to destroy whatever alcoholic beverages they found. Such beverages, however, did not disappear from the nation. An illicit industry, run largely by gangsters, filled the void and ushered in a period of lawlessness. Prohibition had failed; Congress passed the 21st Amendment to repeal it. When the people ratified the 21st Amendment, Prohibition was over. The ban on intoxicating beverages, during the “Roaring Twenties,” had lasted just thirteen years.

Saratoga (Battle): Widely regarded as the turning-point in the American Revolutionary War (and one of the most decisive battles in world history), Saratoga proved that American forces were capable of defeating the British army. There were actually two parts to the conflict: Freeman’s Farm (commencing 19 September 1777, where the British lost two men for every American who died) and Bemis Heights (commencing October 7th, where British losses were four to one). General John Burgoyne, who started the offensive, finally surrendered on October 17. Disgraced, he returned to England. News of the rebels’ victory (under the command [among others] of Benedict Arnold, before he turned traitor) caused France to enter the war and assist the Americans with much-needed supplies and money. General Washington and his Continental Army were thus given the support they needed to continue, and win, the war.

Secession

Seneca Falls: In July of 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (who lived in Seneca Falls, New York) and her colleagues drafted a “Declaration of Sentiments” which was patterned after the Declaration of Independence. American women, who did not have the right to vote, were being governed without their consent (just as the colonists had been governed by Great Britain before the Declaration of Independence was issued). The Declaration of Sentiments served as a rallying cry for the first Women’s Rights Convention, held at Seneca Falls July 19-20, 1848.

Slavery: Beginning early in its history, America had a system of chattel slavery to support the country’s economy. Slaves were owned as property and were not freed until the 13th Amendment to the country’s Constitution was passed in December of 1865.

Space Program (U.S.): The United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a “space race” in the 1950s and 1960s. In the early years, the Soviets were ahead of the Americans. Then President Kennedy declared his desire to successfully send an American to the moon by the end of the 1960s and, with the successful missions of Alan Shepard and John Glenn, momentum shifted between the superpowers. Despite space-program setbacks, like the loss of Apollo 1, the U.S. met President Kennedy’s challenge in the summer of 1969 when Apollo 11 safely traveled to the moon and back.

Taxation without Representation: Although the American colonies had no representatives in the British Parliament, the colonists were forced to pay taxes to Great Britain. This greatly angered the Americans, setting the stage for revolt. People like James Otis declared: “Taxation without representation is tyranny.”

Transcontinental Railroad: During the American Civil War, work began on a transcontinental railroad, linking the east and west coasts of the United States. The railroad was completed on May 10, 1869. Three years later, when the next U.S. census was taken, it was clear that westward expansion, by means of the railroad, was changing the country.

Triangle Trade: Slavers who kidnapped and sold Africans as slaves in the “new world” engaged in a three-part trading system, referred to as “Triangle Trade.” Ships leaving European ports first carried goods needed in Africa. Those goods were exchanged at African ports for slaves about to endure the horrors of the “middle passage” (the second leg of the triangle-trade journey). After exchanging people for finished goods, which new-world slaves helped to produce, the trading ships returned to their original ports. A completed triangle-trade journey typically took one year.

Underground Railroad: As slaves tried to escape the bondage of chattel slavery, the “Underground Railroad” served as a way to assist their difficult journeys north.

Valley Forge

Vietnam: One of the most divisive events in America’s history, the conflict in Vietnam was never a declared war.

Washington’s Farewell Address

Watergate

Women’s Suffrage: American women had few political rights in the 19th and early 20th centuries and did not have the right to vote until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. The struggle for suffrage was long and arduous, and many leading suffragists did not live long enough to see the fruits of their labors.

World War I: The first world war began in August, 1914, not long after Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. The United States joined the war in 1917. Millions of people died, not just from the war itself but from the Spanish Flu pandemic.