February 24, the U.S. Supreme Court decides Marbury v. Madison, establishing that the Supreme Court has the power of judicial review and can invalidate acts of Congress that are unconstitutional.
On March 1, Ohio is admitted as the seventeenth state.
On April 30, American ambassador Robert Livingstone and future President James Monroe sign the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, acquiring a huge tract of land of more than 828,000 square miles that covers parts of fifteen present-day states. President Thomas Jefferson announces the treaty to the American public on July 4.
1804
On May 14, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark commence the so-called “Lewis and Clark expedition,” heading west from St. Louis.
On July 11, Aaron Burr shoots and kills Alexander Hamilton in a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey.
1806
Future President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson insulted Jackson’s wife, Rachel.
1807
On March 2, Congress abolishes the African slave trade.
1812
On April 30, Louisiana is admitted as the eighteenth state.
On December 12, the U.S. declares war on Great Britain, beginning the War of 1812.
1816
On December 11, Indiana is admitted as the nineteenth state.
1817
On December 10, Mississippi is admitted as the twentieth state.
1818
On December 3, Illinois is admitted as the twenty-first state.
1819
On December 14, Alabama is admitted as the twenty-second state.
1820
On March 6, President James Monroe signs the Missouri Compromise. It establishes the dividing lines where slavery is legal and illegal.
On March 15, Maine is admitted as the twenty-third state.
1821
On August 10, Missouri is admitted as the twenty-fourth state.
1823
On December 2, President James Monroe delivers his annual message to Congress. In the address, he announces his foreign policy positions in statements that are known as “The Monroe Doctrine.”
1836
On June 15, Arkansas is admitted as the twenty-fifth state.
1837
On January 6, Michigan is admitted as the twenty-sixth state.
On May 10, the Panic of 1837 ensues with the failure of many banks.
1840
On May 7, a tornado kills more than 300 people in Natchez, Mississippi.
On June 20, Samuel Morse patents the telegraph.
1845
On March 3, Florida is admitted as the twenty-seventh state.
On December 29, Texas is admitted as the twenty-eighth state.
1846
On December 28, Iowa becomes the twenty-ninth state.
1848
On May 29, Wisconsin is admitted as the thirtieth state.
1851
On June 2, Maine passes the first prohibition law on alcohol.
1852
On March 6, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that slaves are property and denies Dred Scott his freedom.
1853
On June 24, President Franklin Pierce signs a measure approving the Gadsden Purchase (much of modern-day New Mexico and part of Arizona) from Mexico.
1858
On May 11, Minnesota is admitted as the thirty-second state.
1859
On February 14, Oregon is admitted as the thirty-third state.
1860
On December 20, South Carolina secedes from the Union.
1861
On Jan. 29, Kansas is admitted as the thirty-fourth state.
On February 9, the Confederate States are formed with Jefferson Davis installed as President.
On April 12, Confederate forces fire on the federal garrison Fort Sumter. This is often cited as the beginning of the American Civil War.
On April 27, President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
On May 8, Richmond, Virginia, is designated as the capital of the Confederacy.
1862
On April 16, slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia.
On May 19, the Homestead Act is passed.
1863
On January 1, President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. It proclaims that all persons held as slaves in the rebellious states are freed.
On June 20, West Virginia is admitted as the thirty-fifth state.
From July 1–3, the Union army defeats the Confederates at the bloody Battle of Gettysburg.
On November 19, President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address.
1864
On October 31, Nevada is admitted as the thirty-sixth state.
1865
On January 1, Congress approves the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude.
On April 9, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The Civil War ends a few months later. On April 14, John Wilkes Booth assassinates President Lincoln.
On December 6, the Thirteenth Amendment is ratified by the required number of states.
1866
On April 9, the U.S. Congress passes the Civil Rights Bill of 1866.
1867
On March 1, Nebraska is admitted as the thirty-seventh state.
On March 30, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward signs a treaty with Russia to purchase the land that forms the state of Alaska. It is called “Seward’s Folly.”
1868
On February 24, President Andrew Johnson is impeached.
On May 16, the Senate fails to have enough votes to convict President Johnson of impeachment charges.
On May 22, the Great Train Robbery takes place in Reno, Nevada. The perpetrators steal nearly $100,000.
1869
On May 15, the National Woman Suffrage Association is formed in New York City.
1875
On June 2, Alexander Graham Bell successfully makes the first electronic transmission of sound.
1876
On August 1, Colorado becomes the thirty-eighth state.
1881
On July 2, President James A. Garfield is assassinated by Charles Guiteau. Vice President Chester A. Arthur succeeds him.
1882
On April 3, notorious outlaw Jesse James is shot and killed by Robert Ford.
On May 6, Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, ending Chinese immigration.
1885
On February 28, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published by author Mark Twain.
1888
On May 7, inventor George Eastman patents his Kodak box camera.
1889
On May 31, the Johnstown Flood leads to death of more than 2,000 in Pennsylvania.
On November 2, North and South Dakota are admitted as the thirty-ninth and fortieth states.
On November 8, Montana is admitted as the forty-first state.
On November 11, Washington is admitted as the forty-second state.
1890
On May 12, Louisiana legalizes the sport of boxing, or prizefighting, as it was commonly called.
On July 3, Idaho becomes the forty-third state.
1893
The Panic of 1893 begins, highlighted by a severe drop in the New York Stock Exchange.
1894
On May 16, a devastating fire in Boston destroys nearly 200 buildings.
1896
On January 4, Utah is admitted as the forty-fifth state.
On May 18, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a Louisiana law mandating racial segregation on railways. The Court justifies the law by the so-called “separate but equal” doctrine.
1899
On April 10, the U.S. and Spain sign the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish–American War. As a result of this treaty, Puerto Rico comes under U.S. control.
1900
On April 30, the United States annexes Hawaii.
1901
On September 6, President William McKinley is shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. President McKinley dies several days later.
1902
On May 20, the U.S. ends its military occupation in Cuba.
1903
On December 17, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright complete the first successful airplane flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1905
On May 15, the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded.
1906
A horrific earthquake in San Francisco kills more than 450 people.
1907
On November 16, Oklahoma is admitted as the forty-sixth state.
1909
On February 12, the National Association for the Advanced of Colored People (NAACP) forms.
On April 6, American explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach the North Pole.
1912
On January 6, New Mexico is admitted as the forty-seventh state.
On February 4, Arizona is admitted as the forty-eighth state.
1913
On May 31, the Seventeenth Amendment, providing for the direct election of U.S. Senators, is ratified.
1915
On June 9, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns his cabinet position.
