Key Dates

Question 1

1607

Answer 1

Jamestown was founded (first permanent English settlement in North America)

Question 2

1619

Answer 2

First Africans are brought to British North America (Beginning of the slave trade and of sectional problems for the country)

Question 3

1754

Answer 3

French and Indian War begins (Great Britain fights France for control of North America)

Question 4

1763

Answer 4

Treaty of Paris (The French and Indian war officially ends, ushering in a new era of British-Colonial Relations and the beginning of the “Road to the Revolution”)

Question 5

1775

Answer 5

Battles of Lexington and Concord (Firsts shots are fired between the British and Colonists)

Question 6

1776

Answer 6

Declaration of Independence (Revolutionary War has been going on for one year, Jefferson writes it)

Question 7

1783

Answer 7

Revolution Ends (Treaty of Paris provides recognition for the United States as a new nation)

Question 8

1787

Answer 8

Constitution written (New government established as the Article of Confederation fail)(Ratified 1789 - Washington elected the same year)

Question 9

1791

Answer 9

Bill of Rights (First 10 Amendments to the Constitution guarantee individual liberties)

Question 10

1803

Answer 10

Louisiana Purchase (U.S. is doubled in size as expansion fever begins)(Jefferson is president)

Question 11

1846

Answer 11

War with Mexico (Culination of Manifest Destiny with southwest land added; Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo signed to end the war in 1848)

Question 12

1861

Answer 12

Civil War Begins (Sectional strife finally leads to a 4 year war - the debate over slavery is the major cause)

Question 13

1865

Answer 13

Civil War Ends (Lee surrenders on April 9th - Lincoln is shot 5 days later)

Question 14

1868

Answer 14

14th Amendment (Guarantees birthright citizenship and equal protection of citizens under the law - ignored and “loopholed” until the 1950s and 60s, used frequently today)

Question 15

1869

Answer 15

1st Transcontinental Railroad (The spike is driven at Promontory Point, UT. The nation’s size becomes more navigable and Asia becomes more important)

Question 16

1877

Answer 16

Reconstruction Ends (Election of 1876-Tilden(D) vs Hayes(R)-leads to no clear electoral winner. The compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction in exchange for Hayes gaining the presidency)

Question 17

1890

Answer 17

Closing the Frontier (Battle/Massacre at wounded knee marks the last Native American resistance on the plains)(Fredrick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis is delivered 1893)

Question 18

1898

Answer 18

Spanish American War (U.S. becomes an imperialist power)(Hawaii is annexed the same year)

Question 19

1914

Answer 19

World War I begins (Isolationist, the U.S. declares neutrality-but we weren’t really neutral…)

Question 20

1917

Answer 20

U.S. enters WWI (U.S. is drawn into the war to “make the world safe for democracy”)

Question 21

1918

Answer 21

WWI ends (Armistice in November 1918, Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919; League of Nations is formed; U.S. Senate does not ratify the treaty)

Question 22

1920

Answer 22

19th Amendment (Women are finally given the right to vote)(A Progressive Era legacy)

Question 23

1929

Answer 23

Stock Market Crash (October 29th, 1929)(A symptom of the problems leading to the Great Depression)

Question 24

1933

Answer 24

New Deal Begins (FDR elected 1932, Inaugurated March, 1933)(1st 100 days begins the 1st New Deal)

Question 25

1939

Answer 25

World War II Begins (Germany invades Poland on September 1st, causing Britain and France to declare war)

Question 26

1941

Answer 26

U.S. enters WWII (Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th brings the U.S. into the fighting)

Question 27

1945

Answer 27

WWII ends/ United Nations formed (WWII ends in May (Europe) and August/September (Japan))(The UN, with its security council made up of Allies, begins operations in October)

Question 28

1950

Answer 28

Korean War begins (Communist North Korea attacks Nationalists South Korea, U.S. and U.N. support South Korea)(War ends in 1953)

Question 29

1954

Answer 29

Brown v Board of Education (Court case sparks the modern civil rights movement)(Beginning of Warren Court, which will last until 1969)

Question 30

1964

Answer 30

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (Under LBJ, U.S. begins major escalation of involvement in Vietnam)

Question 31

1974

Answer 31

Nixon's Resignation (Watergate scandal leads to Nixon's resignation to avoid impeachment)

Question 32

1975

Answer 32

Saigon Falls (Last U.S. diplomatic and military personnel are forced out of Vietnam as communists take over the country)

Question 33

1989

Answer 33

Berlin Wall "falls" (Seen as a symbolic ending of the Cold War)(USSR officially dissolved in 1991)