History of the United States download

							History of the United States
1492 - Christopher Columbus, financed by Spain, makes the first of four voyages to the
New World.

1607 - Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America, is established by
the London Company in southeast Virginia

1776 - Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia

1777 - Continental Congress approves the first official flag of the United States

1791 - First ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, are written

1804 - Lewis and Clark set out from St. Louis, Mo., on expedition to explore the West and
find a route to the Pacific Ocean

1861 - Civil War: Conflict between the North (the Union) and the South (the Confederacy)
over the expansion of slavery into western states begins.

1865 - President Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth

1870 - Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution is approved, giving blacks the right to
vote

1916 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives

1917 - U.S. enters World War I, declaring war on Germany

1919 - Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, granting women the right to
vote

1931 - The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the national anthem

1941 - U.S. declares war on Japan

1950 - American troops are sent to battle in the Korean War

1952 - Puerto Rico becomes a territory of the U.S.

1959 - Alaska becomes the 49th state and Hawaii becomes the 50th
1962 - John Glenn becomes first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth

1963 - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech; President JF
Kennedy is assassinated

1964 - President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act

1965 - U.S. planes begin bombing raids of North Vietnam

1968 - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, TN

1973 - Last U.S. troops leave Vietnam

1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman Supreme Court justice.

1989 - Oil tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, spilling more than 10
million gallons of oil. Up to that time, it was the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

2001 - Over 3000 people die due to terrorist attacks on U.S. soil

2005 - Hurricane Katrina causes much damage to Mississippi and Louisiana; 80% of New
Orleans is flooded

2006 - The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the population of the United States has
reached 300 million

2009 - Barack Obama is sworn in as the first African American President