Timeline of United States history

This is a timeline of United States history, comprising important legal and territorial changes as well as political, social, and economic events in the United States and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of the United States.

Some dates before September 14, 1752, when the British government adopted the Gregorian calendar, may be given in the Old Style.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

6th century

Year	Date	Event
600		Cahokia was settled.

10th century

Year	Date	Event
1000		The Acoma Pueblo and Taos Pueblo in New Mexico are the oldest continuously occupied communities in the USA.

11th century

Year	Date	Event
1100		The Oraibi village was founded in Arizona.

15th century

Year	Date	Event
1493	November 19	Christopher Columbus lands on Puerto Rico naming it San Juan Bautista in honor of Saint John the Baptist.

16th century

Year	Date	Event
1503		Juan Ponce de León was involved in the Higuey massacre on Puerto Rico.
1505		Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was named commander-in-chief and corregidor of the city of Puerto Rico, now called "San Juan". However, he did not fulfill this commission.
1506		Juan Ponce de León surveyed the island that today is named Puerto Rico.
1508		Juan Ponce de León surveyed the Puerto Rico a second time.
1508	August 8	Juan Ponce de León founded Caparra on Puerto Rico island.
1511		Miguel Diaz settles San Germán, Puerto Rico.
1519		Alonso Álvarez de Pineda sailed along the northern coastline of the Gulf of Mexico.
1524		The italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano landed in the neighborhood of Chesapeake Bay and explored the Atlantic coast of North America from Florida to New Brunswick including New York Bay and Narrangansett Bay.
1525		Estêvão Gomes landed in the neighborhood of Chesapeake Bay and took formal possession on behalf of the King of Spain. The massacre was revenged by Mendez some time afterward.
1526	September 29	Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón landed in Winyah Bay.
1526	October 8	Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón established the short-lived San Miguel de Gualdape colony near present day Sapelo Sound in Georgia.
1528	April	Pánfilo de Narváez landed with 300 men near Tampa Bay at what is currently known as the Jungle Prada Site among hostile natives in the context of what is known as the Narváez expedition.
1528	November	Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca shipwrecked on Galveston Island where him and his last three men struggled to survive..
1530		In the 1530s, Hernán Cortés quarreled with Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán and disputed the right to explore the territory that is today California with Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy.
1539		Hernando de Soto landed nine ships with over 620 men and 220 horses in the area identified as south Tampa Bay.
1539		Esteban entered Zuni territory and made contact with the Zuni people in the ancient village of Hawikku near nowaday's Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico.
1540		Hernando de Soto rested in Childersburg in the fall of 1540. Childersburg calls itself the oldest continually inhabited city in the USA.
1540		In the 1540s, André Thévet mentions a conversation during which Jean Alfonse allegedly looted Puerto Rico as a corsair.
1540		The Spanish explorer Melchor Díaz crossed the Colorado River.
1540	September 26	Hernando de Alarcón entered the Colorado River which he named Buena Guia.
1541	May 8	Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi river.
1542	May 21	Hernando de Soto dies and gives command of his expedition to Luis de Moscoso Alvarado.
1542	September 28	Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo landed in what is now San Diego Bay and named it "San Miguel".
1540-1542		Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led the Coronado expedition.
1559		Tristán de Luna y Arellano founded a short-lived settlement in what today is Pensacola Bay.
1562		Gaspard II de Coligny establishes the short-lived Charlesfort-Santa Elena colony.
1564	June 22	René Goulaine de Laudonnière built Fort Caroline as a safe haven for the Huguenots.
1565	September 8	Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded San Agustín which is the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement within the borders of the continental United States.
1566		The short-lived Santa Elena colony was established on top of the Charlesfort-Santa Elena one after the latter was abandoned.
1567		The short-lived Fort San Felipe was built on top of the Santa Elena colony.
1570		The Spanish Jesuit father Segura, along with seven other priests and a number of lay companions, established a mission, which, after a brief period of existence, was destroyed by the natives, the whole company being massacred excepting one Indian boy.
1573	San Germán, Puerto Rico is mentioned in a letter sent to king Phillip II of Spain.
1577		The Spanish built the short-lived San Marcos fort.
1579	June 17	Francis Drake landed on the coast of California in Drakes Bay.
1584-1587		Sir Walter Raleigh unsuccessfully attempted to settle Roanoke Island.
1587	July	John White arrived on Roanoke Island instead of Chesapeake Bay as governor.
1590	March	João da Gama arrives in Acapulco and claims to have explored North America as far as Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo and Francis Drake.
1592		Juan de Fuca claimed to have found what was later named the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
1598		Juan de Oñate acted as the first colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México
1598	October	Juan de Oñate orders the Acoma Massacre.

17th century

Year	Date	Event
1601		Juan de Oñate undertook a large expedition east of the Great Plains region of central North America.
1601	November 24	Juan de Oñate returned to Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico.
1604	October	Juan de Oñate sets out for his last major expedition went to the west, from New Mexico to the lower valley of the Colorado River.
1604		Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons settles Saint Croix Island in Maine.
1607	May 14	Captain John Smith founded the Jamestown settlement on behalf of England.
1607		The short-lived Popham Colony was founded.
1609		Fort Algernon was established.
1609		At first, the natives were glad to trade provisions to the colonists for metal tools, but by 1609 John Smith began sending raiding parties to demand food. Native Americans were isolated, their houses burnt down, and their food supplies were stolen. This earned the colonists a bad reputation among the natives and precipitated conflict.
1609–1610		English violence alienated natives and these laid siege to the Jamestown fort for several months. Unable to secure more food supplies, many colonists died during the "starving time" of 1609–10.
1610	July 9	Fort Charles was established.
1610		Santa Fe, New Mexico was founded by Spanish colonists.
1610		Hampton, Virginia was settled.
1610	July 9	Kecoughtan, Virginia was settled by the English by luring them out of their village with a tambourine player, then attacking them.
1610		The London Company instructed Thomas Gates, the newly appointed colonial governor, to Christianize the natives and absorb them into the colony.
1610	July	Lord de la Warre sent governor Thomas Gates against the Kecoughtan. “Gates lured the Indians into the open by means of music-and-dance act by his drummer, and then slaughtered them”.
1610–1614		The First Anglo–Powhatan War, between the Powhatan and the English colonists, lasted from 1610 to 1614.
1611		Sir Thomas Dale founded Henricus.
1614	October 11	The Dutch laid claim to the territories of New Netherland.
1619		Slavery was introduced to the Colony of Virginia.
1620	November 11	The Mayflower, bearing some one hundred Brownist religious refugees, the Pilgrim Fathers, dropped anchor at Provincetown Harbor, north of the territory around the mouth of the Hudson River for which they had been granted a land patent. Its male passengers drafted the Mayflower Compact, a contract establishing democratic government for the Plymouth Colony and appointing John Carver (Plymouth Colony governor) its first governor.
1622	March 22	The Indian massacre of 1622 happened.
1626		New Amsterdam was founded.
1629	March 4	The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded.
1630	July 6	The Winthrop Fleet arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1632	September 30	Peace was agreed between the English and the Powhatans as a conclusion of the Second Anglo-Powhatan War.
1632	June 20	The Province of Maryland was founded.
1634		Theologian Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1636		The Connecticut Colony was founded by Thomas Hooker.
	January	Williams founded the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
		Harvard College was founded.
1638		Pequot War: The war, in New England, ended.
1638		The Delaware Colony was founded.
		The New Haven Colony was founded.
		New Sweden was created.
1639	January 14	The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were adopted.
	June 4	The Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony was signed.
1640		French and Iroquois Wars: The wars escalated to full warfare.
1642	February 25	Kieft's War: The war, in New Netherland, began.
1643	May	The New England Confederation was created.
1644		The Third Anglo–Powhatan War began.
1645	14 May	Thomas Dudley succeeded John Endecott as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
	June 4	William Bradford (Plymouth Colony governor) succeeded Edward Winslow as governor of the Plymouth Colony.
1646		Third Anglo-Powhatan War: The war ended.
1649		The Maryland Toleration Act was passed.
	January 30	The execution of the English King Charles I of England caused the establishment of the Commonwealth of England.
1650	May	Nicholas Easton was elected president of Rhode Island.
	22 May	Dudley was elected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
	September 19	The Treaty of Hartford, under which New Netherland ceded its claims in the valley of the Connecticut River and fixed its border with Connecticut on Long Island, was signed.
1655		Peach Tree War: The war took place.
1659		Esopus Wars: The first war took place.
1660		The Commonwealth of England came to an end with the restoration of King Charles II of England.
1662		The Halfway Covenant was adopted.
1663	March 24	Charles granted a charter for a new colony, the Province of Carolina.
		Esopus Wars: The second war took place.
1664		Second Anglo-Dutch War: The war began with the English conquest of New Amsterdam.
1667	July 31	New Netherland was ceded to England under the Treaty of Breda.
1669		John Lederer of Virginia began to explore the Appalachian Mountains.
1670	12 May	Simsbury, Connecticut was incorporated.
1671	September	The Batts-Fallam expedition sponsored by Abraham Wood reached the New River.
1672		The Blue Laws were enacted in Connecticut.
1673	May	Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette began to explore the Illinois Country.
1674		Jolliet and Marquette's expedition ended.
		New Netherland was permanently relinquished to England under the Treaty of Westminster.
1675	January 29	Massachusett John Sassamon, a Christian convert, was murdered and dumped in Assawompset Pond.
	June 8	Three Wampanoag were executed by Plymouth Colony authorities for Sassamon's murder.
	June 20	King Philip's War: A band of Pokanoket raided the outskirts of Swansea, Massachusetts.
	August 2	Wheeler's Surprise: An expedition of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Mohegan and Massachusett forces was ambushed by Nipmuc in a swamp near Brookfield, Massachusetts.
	September 5	Northeast Coast Campaign: Wabanaki Confederacy forces raided an English settlement in modern Topsham, Maine.
	September 18	Battle of Bloody Brook: Nipmuc forces ambushed a wagon train of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing sixty people including twenty civilians.
	October	Attack on Springfield: Local Pocomtuc burned Springfield, Massachusetts to the ground at the urging of the Wampanoag sachem Metacomet.
	November 30	Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, the proprietor and proprietary governor of Maryland, died. He was succeeded by his son Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore.
	December 19	Great Swamp Fight: The combined forces of the New England Confederation, the Pequot and the Mohegan killed as many as one thousand Narragansett, including many civilians, in modern South Kingstown, Rhode Island.
1676		Bacon's Rebellion: The rebellion, in Virginia, took place.
		King Philip's War: The war took place.
1677		The Province of Maine was absorbed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1679		War between Carolina and the Westo resulted in the destruction of the Westo.
1680	September	Pueblo Revolt: A revolt took place in Spanish New Mexico.
1681		The Province of Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn.
1682	April 7	René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle travelled down the Mississippi River to its mouth.
1685	February 6	Charles died. He was succeeded as King of Kingdom of England by James II of England.
1686		The Dominion of New England was established.
1687		Yamasee Indians from Spanish Florida moved to Carolina.
1688	December 11	Glorious Revolution: James was deposed in favor of William and Mary.
1689	April 18	The Governor of the Dominion of New England was deposed, ending the rule of the Dominion.
	May	King William's War: The war began.
1690	February 9	Schenectady massacre: A massacre took place.
1692		Salem witch trials: Witch trials took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
1695	March 1	Greenwich Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey was formed.
	May	Caleb Carr (governor) was elected governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
	June 1	Gloucester Township and Waterford Township, New Jersey and the town of Bethlehem, now Deptford Township, New Jersey, were formed.
	December 17	Carr died.
	December	Walter Clarke (governor) was elected governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
1697	July	War of the Grand Alliance: The war was ended by the Treaty of Ryswick.
1698		Pensacola, Florida was established by the Spanish.
1699		Biloxi was founded by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville.
1700	July 17	Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont resigned his commission as governor of New York, leaving his lieutenant John Nanfan in office as acting governor.
	October 10	Lebanon, Connecticut was incorporated.

18th century

Year	Date	Event
1702	March 8	William III died and was succeeded by Anne, Queen of Great Britain.
		Queen Anne's War: The war began.
		East Jersey and West Jersey became Crown colonies.
1714	August 1	Anne, Queen of Great Britain died and was succeeded by George I of Great Britain.
1715		Yamasee War: The war, in Carolina, took place.
1720	December 7	Hanover Township, New Jersey was formed.
1725	7 May	Governor Francis Nicholson of South Carolina left for Great Britain to respond to false criminal accusations. Arthur Middleton (1681–1737) succeeded him as acting governor.
	9 May	Battle of Pequawket: An ambush of British colonists by a numerically superior Abenaki force in modern Fryeburg, Maine was repelled. The Abenaki chief Chief Paugus was killed.
	December 15	Dummer's War: A treaty was signed, ending the war between the New England Colonies and most of its Native American adversaries. The natives were allowed to retain Jesuit priests among them and did not accept British sovereignty.
	December 17	Stoneham, Massachusetts was established.
1727	June 11	George I of Great Britain died and was succeeded by George II of Great Britain.
1729	July 25	The proprietors of the Province of Carolina sold out to the British crown.
1732		First Great Awakening: The First Great Awakening took place.
1733	February 12	The English settlement of Savannah and the Province of Georgia were founded by James Oglethorpe.
1745	July 19	Northeast Coast Campaign: Wabanaki Confederacy forces raided towns in northeastern New England, killing one and taking two hostages.
	September 5	Northeast Coast Campaign (1745): Wabanaki Confederacy forces killed and scalped two people in what is now Thomaston, Maine in their last raid of the campaign.
	November 28	Raid on Saratoga: French and indigenous forces burned Saratoga, New York, killing thirty and capturing as many as one hundred British colonists.
1749		The Province of Georgia overturned its ban on slavery
1750	January 22	Hardwick Township, New Jersey was chartered.
	January 27	Cumberland County, Pennsylvania was created from the partition of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
	March 3	Stafford Township, New Jersey was chartered.
	June 11	Kent County, Rhode Island was established from the partition of Providence County, Rhode Island.
	June 24	The Iron Act, which eliminated tariffs on iron imported into Great Britain from America and limited American manufacturing capacity, came into force.
	November 6	Governor Jonathan Law of Connecticut died. His deputy Roger Wolcott (Connecticut) succeeded him as acting governor.
1752	June 15	Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment took place.

After September 2 (O.S.), the British government adopted the Gregorian calendar. All dates hereafter are given in the New Style.

1754	May 28	French and Indian War: The war began.
	June 19	Albany Congress: A "Union of Colonies" was proposed.
1758	October	The Treaty of Easton was signed.
1760	September 8	French and Indian War: Pierre de Rigaud, Governor of New France, signed the Articles of Capitulation of Montreal, ceding the Ohio Country and Illinois Country, and the territory of modern-day Canada, to British Field Marshal Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, ending major hostilities.
	October 25	George II of Great Britain died and was succeeded by his grandson George III of the United Kingdom.
1763		Pontiac's Rebellion: The rebellion began.
	February 10	French and Indian War: The Treaty of Paris, under which France ceded much of its North American territory to Great Britain but surrendered Louisiana to Spain, formally ended the war.
	October 7	George III issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, establishing royal administration over the British colonies won under the Treaty of Paris and demarcating their western boundary.
1764	April 5	The Sugar Act, intended to raise revenues, was passed by the British Parliament.
	September 1	The British Parliament passed the Currency Act, which prohibited the colonies from issuing paper money.
1765	March 22	To help defray the cost of keeping troops in America, the British Parliament enacted the Stamp Act 1765, imposing a tax on many types of printed materials used in the colonies.
	March 24	The British Parliament enacted the Quartering Act, requiring the Thirteen Colonies to provide housing, food, and other provisions to British troops.
	May 29	Virginia's House of Burgesses adopted the Virginia Resolves, which claimed that under British law Virginians could be taxed only by an assembly to which they had elected representatives.
	October 19	Stamp Act Congress: A congress of delegates from nine colonies adopted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which petitioned Parliament and the King to repeal the Stamp Act.
1766		Pontiac's Rebellion: The rebellion ended.
	March 18	The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and issued the Declaratory Act, which asserted its "full power and authority to make laws and statutes... to bind the colonies and people of America... in all cases whatsoever."
	May 21	The Liberty Pole was erected in New York City in celebration of the repeal of the Stamp Act.
1767	June 29	The Townshend Acts, named for Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend, were passed by the British Parliament, placing duties on many items imported into America.
1769		The British Parliament suspended the Governor and assembly of the Province of New York for failure to enforce the Quartering Act.
	December	The broadside To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York was published by the local Sons of Liberty.
1770	January 19	Battle of Golden Hill: Several civilians were injured following a confrontation with British troops in New York City.
	March 5	Boston massacre: British soldiers fired into a crowd of protestors in Boston, killing five and injuring six.
	March 16	Gloucester County, New York was established by the partition of Albany County, New York.
	April 12	George III granted the royal assent to an act repealing the Townshend Acts with the exception of the tax on tea.
	October 15	Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt, the governor of Virginia, died.
	October 18	Great Britain and the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Lochaber, under which the Cherokee ceded some land in modern West Virginia.
1771	May 16	Battle of Alamance: A battle took place in North Carolina ending the Regulator Movement.
1772	May	The Watauga Association, in modern-day Tennessee, declared itself independent.
	June 9	Gaspee Affair: The British schooner Gaspee was burned.
	November 2	Samuel Adams organized the Committees of Correspondence.
1773	May 10	The British Parliament passed the Tea Act.
	December 15	The local Sons of Liberty published Association of the Sons of Liberty in New York.
	December 16	Boston Tea Party: The Boston Tea Party took place.
1774		Franklin, then Massachusetts's agent in London, was questioned before the British Parliament.
		Dunmore's War: The war took place.
		Britain passed the Quebec Act, one of the so-called Intolerable Acts.
	March 31	Great Britain enacted the Boston Port Act, one of the so-called Intolerable Acts.
	May 20	Great Britain passed the Administration of Justice Act 1774, one of the so-called Intolerable Acts.
		Great Britain passed the Massachusetts Government Act, one of the so-called Intolerable Acts.
	June 2	Great Britain passed a second Quartering Act, one of the so-called Intolerable Acts.
	July 18	The Fairfax County Resolves - George Washington and George Mason plus others state position of Virginia Colony vis a Vis King George.www.constitution.org/bcp/fairfax_res.htm
	September 1	Powder Alarm: British General Thomas Gage secretly raided a powder magazine in Cambridge.
	September 5	First Continental Congress held in Philadelphia, PA. Twelve colonies attended.
	October 19	The HMS Peggy Stewart was burned.
	December 22	Greenwich Tea Party: The Greenwich Tea Party took place.
1775	January 20	American Revolution: The government of Fincastle County, Virginia issued the Fincastle Resolutions, promising resistance to the Intolerable Acts.
	February 27	Parliament passed the Conciliatory Resolution, addressed individually to each of Great Britain's colonies in North America, which promised that any colony which raised taxes for the common defense and for its own civil government would be relieved of additional taxation.
	March 13	Westminster massacre: One person was shot and killed by British colonial officials during a riot in Westminster, Vermont.
	March 21	Thomas Penn, the chief proprietor of Pennsylvania, died. His son John Penn inherited his stake in the colony.
	March 22	American Revolution: The government of Harford County, Maryland adopted the Bush Declaration, calling for armed revolt against Great Britain.
	March 23	Second Virginia Convention: In Richmond, Patriot Patrick Henry urged the provisional legislature of Virginia to begin arming militias in the speech Give me liberty, or give me death!
	April 18	American Revolution: Paul Revere of the Sons of Liberty rode from Boston to Lexington, Massachusetts to warn the local Patriot militia of the approach of British forces. See §"Midnight Ride"
	April 19	Battles of Lexington and Concord: After attacking militias loyal to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, British forces were made to withdraw to Boston.
		Siege of Boston: Patriot militia of Massachusetts established a siege line around Boston from Chelsea, Massachusetts to Roxbury, Boston.
	April 20	Gunpowder Incident: Royal Navy sailors removed gunpowder from the Williamsburg, Virginia magazine.
		Woodbridge's Regiment of Militia was established.
	April 23	The 7th, 12th, 13th, 21st and 25th Continental Regiments and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 12th Massachusetts Regiments were raised by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress.
	April 27	The 1st, 4th and 5th Connecticut Regiments were raised.
	May 1	The 6th Connecticut Regiment was raised at New Haven, Connecticut.
	May 6	The revolutionary government of Rhode Island authorized the 1st Rhode Island Regiment.
	May 9	Patriot forces captured Skenesboro in modern Whitehall, New York.
		Thompson's War: Patriot militia captured Royal Navy lieutenant Henry Mowat in Falmouth, now Portland, Maine, while his ship the HMS Canceaux sat at anchor in Casco Bay.
	May 10	Capture of Fort Ticonderoga: The Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga in modern Ticonderoga, New York from a British garrison.
		Second Continental Congress: A convention of delegates from Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island convened in Philadelphia to coordinate American resistance to the Intolerable Acts. The convention elected Peyton Randolph president.
		The Continental Artillery Regiment was authorized.
	May 14	Battle off Fairhaven: Patriot militia retrieved two captured vessels along with thirteen Royal Navy sailors off modern Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
		Second Continental Congress: Randolph left Philadelphia due to poor health.
	May 16	American Revolution: The residents of Hanna's Town, now Hannastown, Pennsylvania, signed the Hanna's town resolves, pledging to resist what they considered illegal acts of Parliament.
	May 22	American Revolution: The New York Provincial Congress declared itself the government of New York.
		The 1st and 3rd New Hampshire Regiments were authorized..
	May 23	American Revolution: The Provincial Congress of New Jersey, composed of delegates of the thirteen counties, met at Trenton.
	May 24	Second Continental Congress: The Congress elected John Hancock president.
	May 27	Battle of Chelsea Creek: British forces came into conflict with colonial militia attempting to remove livestock from Noddle's Island.
	May 28	Battle of Chelsea Creek: The British schooner HMS Diana was stripped of its cannon and burned by colonial forces off Chelsea, Massachusetts.
	31 May	The committee of safety of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina adopted the Mecklenburg Resolves, annulling all laws established under the authority of the monarch or parliament of Great Britain and investing the Second Continental Congress with all legislative and executive power.
	June 12	Battle of Machias: Patriot militia captured a British schooner in the port of Machias, Maine.
	June 14	Second Continental Congress: A resolution of the Congress established the Continental Army, which assumed control of the provincial troops of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut and established .
	June 15	Second Continental Congress: The Congress unanimously chose to appoint George Washington commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.
	June 16	Second Continental Congress: The Congress established the offices of the Paymaster-General and Quartermaster General of the United States Army.
	June 17	Battle of Bunker Hill: The British army captured the hills surrounding Boston from colonial forces at a disproportionate cost in casualties.
	June 20	American Revolution: Residents of Cumberland County, North Carolina drafted the Liberty Point Resolves, pledging to join one another in resistance against British force.
	June 27	Harrington Township, New Jersey was established out of the northern portions of New Barbadoes Township and Hackensack Township.
	July 5	Second Continental Congress: The Congress drafted the Olive Branch Petition, expressing the desire of the Thirteen Colonies to remain British subjects and calling on George III to grant the colonies trade rights equal to those of Britain proper, or relieve them of taxation.
	July 6	Second Continental Congress: The Congress issued the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, rejecting the authority of the Parliament over the Thirteen Colonies.
	July 17	Third Virginia Convention: A meeting of the Patriot legislature of Virginia opened in Richmond which would appoint a committee of safety to govern the colony between sessions. The Culpeper Minutemen and the 1st and 2nd Virginia Regiments were organized.
	July 20	Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina fled Fort Johnston in the face of a Patriot advance.
	July 27	Second Continental Congress: The Congress established the Army Hospital, now the Army Medical Department.
	August 8	Battle of Gloucester (1775): Colonial militia captured some twenty British sailors sent to seize a schooner run aground in the harbor at Gloucester, Massachusetts.
	August 14	American Revolution: The citizens of Tryon County, North Carolina signed the Tryon Resolves promising armed resistance to Parliamentary authority.
	August 23	George III issued the Proclamation of Rebellion, declaring that the Thirteen Colonies were in open rebellion against Great Britain and would be subdued by force.
		Governor Sir John Wentworth, 1st Baronet of New Hampshire fled the colony.
	August 29	1775 Newfoundland hurricane: A hurricane made landfall in North Carolina which would kill some two hundred people in North Carolina and Virginia.
	September 1	The 1st and 2nd North Carolina Regiments were authorized.
	September 11	Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec: Continental Army colonel Benedict Arnold departed Cambridge, Massachusetts for Quebec City.
	September 15	American Revolutionary War: Patriot forces captured the fort overlooking the South Carolinian capital Charleston. Governor Lord William Campbell dissolved the provincial assembly and fled.
	September 18	Siege of Fort St. Jean: Continental Army forces began setting up entrenched positions around Fort Saint-Jean in modern Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
	September 25	Battle of Longue-Pointe: A Patriot expedition sent to capture Montreal was intercepted. Its leader, Ethan Allen, was taken prisoner.
	October 11	Gage departed Massachusetts for Great Britain.
	October 12	The 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment was raised.
	October 13	Second Continental Congress: The Congress authorized the establishment of a Continental Navy.
	October 18	Burning of Falmouth: A Royal Navy fleet bombarded the city of Falmouth in modern Portland, Maine with incendiaries.
	November 3	Siege of Fort St. Jean: The defenders of Fort Saint-Jean surrendered to the Continental Army.
	November 7	The British governor John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore of Virginia issued Dunmore's Proclamation, declaring martial law in Virginia and promising freedom to any slave of a colonial revolutionary to join the British Armed Forces.
	November 10	Second Continental Congress: The Congress established the Continental Marines.
	November 14	Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec: Arnold's Continental Army forces reached the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City.
	November 15	Battle of Kemp's Landing: A Continental Army force suffered casualties in a failed ambush of British forces in modern Virginia Beach, Virginia.
	November 17	Noble train of artillery: Colonel Henry Knox of the Continental Army led an expedition out of Fort Ticonderoga to transport the artillery captured there to Boston.
		Second Continental Congress: The Congress established the Field Artillery Branch of the Continental Army effective 1 January 1776.
	November 19	Siege of Savage's Old Fields: Patriot major Andrew Williamson set up camp on a plantation in Ninety Six, South Carolina.
November 20	Siege of Savage's Old Fields: Williamson's militia was surrounded by a larger loyalist force.
November 22	Siege of Savage's Old Fields: The Patriot and loyalist militia exchanged prisoners and abandoned their positions.
December 9	Battle of Great Bridge: An attempt by the Dunmore to cross the Elizabeth River and destroy the Patriot encampment at modern Great Bridge, Virginia was decisively repelled.
	The 1st Delaware Regiment, now the 198th Signal Battalion, was raised.
	The 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Pennsylvania Regiments were raised.
December 13	The 5th Connecticut Regiment was disbanded.
December 20	The 4th Connecticut Regiment was disbanded.
December 22	Battle of Great Cane Brake: A Patriot expedition captured over a hundred loyalists in modern Greenville County, South Carolina.
December 28	The 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 10th and 15th Virginia Regiments were raised.
December 31	Battle of Quebec (1775): A Continental Army force suffered high casualties in a failed attack on Quebec City. Brigadier general Richard Montgomery was killed and Arnold was wounded.
1776		New Hampshire ratified the first state constitution.
		Prisoners began to be taken in Wallabout Bay. see Prisoners in the American Revolutionary War.
	January 10	Thomas Paine published Common Sense.
	January 24	Knox reached Boston.
	March 3	Battle of Nassau: The battle began.
	March 4	Battle of Nassau: The battle ended.
	July 2	Second Continental Congress: The Congress enacted the Lee Resolution declaring independence from the British Empire.
	July 4	Second Continental Congress: The Congress approved the written United States Declaration of Independence.
	August 27	Battle of Long Island: The battle took place.
	September 11	Staten Island Peace Conference: The peace conference took place.
	September 15	Landing at Kip's Bay: The landing took place.
	September 16	Battle of Harlem Heights: The battle took place.
	September 21	Great Fire of New York: The fire began.
	September 22	Nathan Hale was captured and executed for espionage.
		Great Fire of New York (1776): The fire ended.
	October 11	Battle of Valcour Island: The battle took place.
	October 29	Battle of White Plains: The battle took place.
	November 16	Battle of Fort Washington: The battle took place.
	November 20	Battle of Fort Lee: The battle took place.
	December 23	Battle of Iron Works Hill: The battle began.
	December 26	Battle of Trenton: The battle took place.
		Battle of Iron Works Hill: The battle ended.
1777		Forage War: The war took place.
	January 2	Second Battle of Trenton: The battle took place.
	January 3	Battle of Princeton: The battle took place.
	April 13	Battle of Bound Brook: The battle took place.
	May 28	The Continental Army made camp at the Middlebrook encampment.
	June 26	Battle of Short Hills: The battle took place.
	July 2	The Continental Army left the Middlebrook encampment.
	July 5	Fort Ticonderoga was abandoned by the Continental Army due to advancing British troops placing cannon on Mount Defiance.
	July 6	The British retook Fort Ticonderoga.
	July 7	Battle of Hubbardton: The battle took place.
	July 8	Delegates in Vermont established the Vermont Republic and adopted the Constitution of Vermont, which abolished slavery.
	August 6	Battle of Oriskany: The battle took place.
	August 16	Battle of Bennington: The battle took place.
	September 11	Battle of Brandywine: The battle took place.
	September 19	Battles of Saratoga: The first Battle of Saratoga took place.
	September 20	Battle of Paoli: The battle took place.
	September 26	The British occupied Philadelphia.
	October 4	Battle of Germantown: The battle took place.
	October 7	Battles of Saratoga: The second battle concluded with the surrender of the British army under General John Burgoyne.
	October 22	Battle of Red Bank: The battle took place.
	November 15	Second Continental Congress: The Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation.
	December 5	Battle of White Marsh: The battle began.
	December 8	Battle of White Marsh: The battle ended.
	December 11	Battle of Matson's Ford: The battle took place.
	December 19	The Continental Army entered its winter quarters at Valley Forge
1778	February 6	The Treaty of Alliance was signed with France.
	May 20	Battle of Barren Hill: The battle took place.
	June	British occupation of Philadelphia ended.
	June 19	The Continental Army left its winter quarters at Valley Forge.
	June 28	Battle of Monmouth: The battle took place.
	November 30	The Continental Army entered winter quarters at the Middlebrook encampment.
1779	June 3	The Continental Army left the Middlebrook encampment.
	July 16	Battle of Stony Point: The battle took place.
	August 19	Battle of Paulus Hook: The battle took place.
	December	The Continental Army entered winter quarters at Morristown.
1780	January 28	A stockade known as Fort Nashborough was founded on the banks of the Cumberland River.
	February 1	Some eight thousand British forces under General Henry Clinton arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, from New York.
		Second Continental Congress: New York ceded its western claims, including territory west of Lake Ontario, to the Congress.
	March 14	Bombardment of Fort Charlotte: After a two-week siege, Spanish General Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez captured Fort Charlotte, in Mobile, from the British.
	April 8	Siege of Charleston: British troops under General Clinton and naval forces under Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot besiege Charleston, South Carolina.
	May	The Continental Army left Morristown.
	May 6	Siege of Charleston: Fort Moultrie fell to the British.
	May 12	Siege of Charleston: American General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered Charleston to the British. The British lost two hundred and fifty-five men while capturing a large American garrison.
	May 29	Battle of Waxhaws: A clash between Continental Army forces under Abraham Buford and a mainly Loyalist force led by Banastre Tarleton near Lancaster, South Carolina resulted in the destruction of the American forces.
	June 6	Battle of Connecticut Farms: The battle took place.
	June 23	Battle of Springfield: An attempted British invasion of New Jersey was stopped at Connecticut Farms and Springfield, ending major fighting in the North.
	September 23	John André was captured, exposing the treason of Arnold.
	October 7	Battle of Kings Mountain: The battle took place.
1781	January 17	Battle of Cowpens: The battle took place.
	March 1	The Articles of Confederation were ratified.
	March 15	Battle of Guilford Court House: The battle took place.
	October 19	Siege of Yorktown: The British surrendered at Yorktown.
	December 31	The Bank of North America was chartered.
1782		The British government officially, yet informally, recognized American independence.
1783	September 3	American Revolutionary War: The Treaty of Paris (1783) ended the war.
	November 25	The British withdraw from ports in New York and the Carolinas.
1784		The State of Frankland, later Franklin, seceded from North Carolina.
1785		Congress refused Franklin admission to the Union.
	November 28	The Treaty of Hopewell was signed.
1786	August 29	Shays' Rebellion: The rebellion took place.
	September 11–14	Annapolis Convention: The convention failed.
1787	July 13	The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was passed.
	May 25 – September 17	Philadelphia Convention: A Constitutional convention took place in Philadelphia.
	December 7–18	Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey ratified the Constitution.
1788		North Carolina reconquered and dissolved the State of Franklin.
1789		United States presidential election, 1789: The election took place.
	March 4	The United States Constitution came into effect.
	April 30	First inauguration of George Washington: George Washington was inaugurated as President in New York City.
		1st United States Congress: The Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789 and the Hamilton tariff.
		The Jay-Gardoqui Treaty was signed.
	November 21	North Carolina, by a margin of 43%, became the twelfth state to ratify the Constitution.
1790	May 26	The Southwest Territory (a/k/a Territory South of the River Ohio) is created from North Carolina's Western frontier lands.
	May 29	Rhode Island, by a margin of 3%, became the thirteenth state to ratify the Constitution.
1791		The United States Bill of Rights was ratified.
		The First Bank of the United States was chartered.
		The independent Vermont Republic was admitted to the Union as Vermont, becoming the fourteenth state.
1792		Kentucky County, Virginia became the fifteenth state of Kentucky.
	November 2 – December 5	U.S. presidential election, 1792: Washington was reelected President. John Adams was chosen as Vice President.
1793		Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin.
		A yellow fever outbreak occurred in Philadelphia.
		The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 was passed.
	February 18	Chisholm v. Georgia was decided.
1794		Whiskey Rebellion: The rebellion took place.
	August–November	The Nickajack Expedition brings a close to the Cherokee–American wars.
	August 20	Battle of Fallen Timbers: The battle took place ending the Northwest Indian War with the Western Confederacy.
		The first of the "Civilized" Indian Nations, the Cherokee Nation, is founded.
1795	January 11	New Jersey's at-large congressional district special election, 1795: An election was held to New Jersey's at-large congressional district to fill the vacancy left by the death of Abraham Clark. Aaron Kitchell won with ninety-seven percent of the vote.
	January 19	South Carolina's 2nd congressional district special election, 1795: A special election began to South Carolina's 2nd congressional district to fill the vacancy left by John Barnwell's refusal to serve.
	January 20	South Carolina's 2nd congressional district special election, 1795: The election ended. Democratic-Republican Wade Hampton I was elected with twenty-nine percent of the vote.
	January 27	United States Senate election in New York, 1795: Federalist Rufus King was reelected to the Senate from New York.
	January 29	The Naturalization Act of 1795 was signed into law, extending the residence requirement for persons seeking naturalization and reserving the right of naturalization to white people.
	February 7	The Eleventh Amendment, which bars the federal government from hearing suits brought against a state by a citizen of another state or of a foreign country, was ratified.
		Federalist Henry Latimer (senator) of Delaware was elected to the Senate to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of fellow Federalist George Read. He resigned his seat representing Delaware's at-large congressional district.
	February 20	The Supreme Court held in a decision in United States v. Hamilton that a defendant jailed for a capital offense can be released on bail.
	February 24	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Penhallow v. Doane's Administrators that the district courts have the same authority in prize cases that the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture held under the Articles of Confederation.
	February 26	United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 1795: William Bingham was elected to the Senate from Pennsylvania.
	March 3	The Supreme Court held in a decision in United States v. Lawrence that it cannot issue a writ of mandamus compelling a district court judge to proceed in a case when that judge feels he has insufficient evidence to do so.
	April 13	Connecticut's at-large congressional district special election, 1795: A special election was held to Connecticut's at-large congressional district to fill the vacancy left following Federalist Jonathan Trumbull Jr.'s election to the Senate. Federalist Nathaniel Smith won with forty percent of the vote.
	August 3	Northwest Indian War: The Western Confederacy signed the Treaty of Greenville, ceding much territory in modern Ohio to the United States in exchange for an annual subsidy and ending the war.
	August 4	North Carolina's 4th congressional district special election, 1795: A special election was held to North Carolina's 4th congressional district to fill the vacancy left following the death of Alexander Mebane. Democratic-Republican Absalom Tatom won with twenty-eight percent of the vote.
	August 24	The Supreme Court held in a decision in United States v. Peters that it can compel a district court to cease proceedings in a case where it has no jurisdiction .
	October 27	Spain and the United States signed Pinckney's Treaty, fixing the boundary between the United States and the Spanish colonies and guaranteeing freedom of navigation on the Mississippi River.
	November 16	Federalist George Walton was appointed to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the resignation of Democratic-Republican James Jackson.
	December 14	The Committee on Commerce and Manufactures, now the Committee on Energy and Commerce, a standing committee of the House, was established.
1796	June 1	Tennessee, formerly Southwest Territory, was admitted as the sixteenth state.
		Pinckney's Treaty was signed.
		The Treaty of Tripoli was signed.
	November 4 – December 7	U.S. presidential election, 1796: Adams was elected President. Thomas Jefferson was elected Vice President.
1797		Adams was inaugurated.
		XYZ Affair: The affair took place.
1798		The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed.
		The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were issued.
1799		The Charles Brockden Brown novel Edgar Huntly was published.
		Fries's Rebellion: The rebellion took place.
		The Logan Act was passed.
	December 14	Washington died.
1800	1 January	Action of 1 January 1800: A pirate squadron loyal to the pro-French Haitian general André Rigaud attacked a convoy of American merchant ships in the Gulf of Gonâve. The Haitian squadron captured two American ships at great cost in casualties.
	7 January	The Virginia General Assembly adopted the Report of 1800, arguing that the Alien and Sedition Acts violated the Constitution and for the compact theory that the United States is a free association of states.
	10 January	Federalist congressman Samuel Sewall resigned his seat representing Massachusetts's 10th congressional district following his appointment to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
	19 March	Federalist senator James Watson of New York resigned following his appointment as Naval Officer of the Port of New York.
	3 April	United States Senate special election in New York, April 1800: Federalist Gouverneur Morris was elected to fill the Senate seat representing New York, vacant after Watson's resignation.
	24 April	Adams signed into law an act establishing the Library of Congress and moving the national capital from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.
	29 April	United States House of Representatives elections, 1800: The first regular elections to the House of Representatives for the 7th Congress began, in New York.
	10 May	The Slave Trade Act of 1800, which forbade residents and citizens of the United States from investing in or serving aboard a ship engaged in the business of transporting slaves into the United States, was signed into law.
	11 May	Battle of Puerto Plata Harbor: American forces captured a French ship and Spanish fort in the harbor of what is now Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
	21 May	Fries's Rebellion: Adams issued a general amnesty to all participants in the rebellion.
	30 May	Federalist senator Samuel Dexter of Massachusetts resigned his seat.
	6 June	Federalist congressman Dwight Foster of Massachusetts's 4th congressional district was selected to fill Dexter's vacancy in the Senate, representing Massachusetts.
	7 June	Federalist congressman John Marshall of Virginia's 13th congressional district resigned following his appointment as Secretary of State.
	12 June	Federalist representative William Gordon of New Hampshire resigned following his appointment as New Hampshire Attorney General.
	17 June	Revival of 1800: Several congregants of the Red River Meeting House in Logan County, Kentucky fell into ecstasy during a sermon.
	4 July	The Indiana Territory was partitioned from the Northwest Territory.
	10 July	Connecticut ceded the Connecticut Western Reserve to the federal government, which in turn annexed it to the Northwest Territory.
	31 July	Virginia's 13th congressional district special election, 1800: Democratic-Republican Littleton Waller Tazewell was elected to the House seat representing Virginia's 13th congressional district left vacant by Marshall's resignation with sixty-five percent of the vote.
	11 August	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Mossman v. Higginson that the parties to a suit must be so described as to show on the record that the court has jurisdiction.
	15 August	In a decision in Bas v. Tingy, the Supreme Court held that France was an enemy of the United States under a 1799 salvage law because, although Congress had not declared war, it had taken actions concomitant with a state of war.
	25 August	Massachusetts's 4th congressional district special election, 1800: Democratic-Republican Levi Lincoln Sr. and Federalist Jabez Upham were sent to a runoff in a special election to fill the House seat representing Massachusetts's 4th congressional district, vacant since Foster resigned to serve in the Senate.
		Massachusetts's 10th congressional district special election, 1800: Federalist Nathan Read and Democratic-Republican Jacob Crowninshield were sent to a runoff in a special election to fill Sewall's vacant House seat representing Massachusetts's 10th congressional district.
		New Hampshire's at-large congressional district special election, 1800: Federalists Samuel Tenney and George B. Upham were sent to a runoff in a special election to fill the House seat representing New Hampshire left vacant by Gordon's resignation.
	15 September	Connecticut's at-large congressional district special election, 1800: John Cotton Smith was elected to fill the House seat representing Connecticut left vacant by the resignation of fellow Federalist Jonathan Brace with forty-five percent of the vote.
	22 September	Invasion of Curaçao (1800): American forces arrived to expel French forces from Curaçao.
	25 September	Invasion of Curaçao (1800): The French occupiers fled Curaçao. British forces took possession of the island and seized local merchant ships, including American ships.
	30 September	Quasi-War: France and the United States signed the Convention of 1800, ending the war. The Convention terminated the Treaty of Alliance and guaranteed that each nation would grant the other most favoured nation status.
	20 October	Massachusetts's 4th congressional district special election, 1800: Lincoln won the runoff election with fifty percent of the vote.
		Massachusetts's 10th congressional district special election, 1800: Read won the runoff with fifty-three percent of the vote.
	27 October	New Hampshire's at-large congressional district special election, 1800: Tenney won the runoff election with seventy-one percent of the vote.
	31 October	United States presidential election, 1800: The last delegates to the Electoral College were selected, by the General Assembly of South Carolina, giving the Democratic-Republican Party a majority.
	6 November	Federalist congressman Samuel Lyman of Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district resigned.
		United States Senate special election in New York, November 1800: Democratic-Republican John Armstrong Jr. was elected nearly unanimously to fill the Senate seat representing New York left vacant by the resignation of Federalist John Laurance.
	8 November	Federalist senator Benjamin Goodhue of Massachusetts resigned his seat and retired from politics.
	11 November	1800 State of the Union Address: Adams delivered a speech to a joint session of the Congress in which he celebrated the capital's move to its permanent home in Washington, D.C.
	14 November	Federalist Jonathan Mason was elected to the Senate seat representing Massachusetts left vacant by Goodhue's resignation.
	20 November	United States Senate elections, 1800 and 1801: The first regular election to the Senate for the 7th Congress began, in Kentucky.
	1 December	Federalist senator James Lloyd of Maryland resigned his seat.
	3 December	United States presidential election, 1800: The Electoral College cast an equal number of votes for Democratic-Republicans Jefferson and Aaron Burr, sending them to a runoff election in the House.
	12 December	Federalist William Hindman was elected to the Senate seat representing Maryland left vacant by Lloyd's resignation.
	15 December	Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district special election, 1800: Federalist Ebenezer Mattoon was unanimously elected in a special election to fill Lyman's seat representing Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district.
	21 December	Federalist congressman Thomas Hartley of Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district died.

19th century

Year	Date	Event
1801		Thomas Jefferson was elected President by the House of Representatives. Aaron Burr became Vice President.
		Adams appointed John Marshall Chief Justice.
1803		The Supreme Court issued a decision in Marbury v. Madison which overturned the Judiciary Act of 1789.
		Louisiana Purchase: The purchase was made.
	March 1	Ohio, formerly the Northwest Territory, became the 17th state.
1804		The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified.
		New Jersey abolished slavery.
	July 11	Burr–Hamilton duel: Alexander Hamilton was fatally wounded.
		Lewis and Clark began their journey west.
	November 2 – December 5	U.S. presidential election: Jefferson was reelected President; George Clinton was elected Vice President.
1807		The Embargo Act of 1807 was passed.
		Robert Fulton invented the steamboat.
1808		The international slave trade was outlawed.
	November 4 – December 7	U.S. presidential election: James Madison was elected president; Clinton was reelected as Vice President.
1809		Madison was inaugurated.
	March 1	The Non-Intercourse Act was passed.
1810		The Supreme Court issues a decision in Fletcher v. Peck which overturns a state law.
1811		The charter of the First Bank of the United States expires.
1812		War of 1812: The war begins.
		Daniel Webster was elected to the United States Congress.
	April 30	Louisiana became the 18th state.
	December 2	U.S. presidential election, 1812: Madison was reelected President; Elbridge Gerry was elected Vice President.
1814	August 24	Burning of Washington: British troops burned Washington, D.C. but were forced back at Baltimore.
	December 14	War of 1812: The Treaty of Ghent ended the war.
1815	January 8	War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: The battle took place before notification of the Treaty of Ghent made it to the frontier.
1816	December 4	U.S. presidential election, 1816: James Monroe was elected President; Daniel D. Tompkins was elected Vice President.
		The Second Bank of the United States was chartered.
	December 11	Indiana became the 19th state.
1817	March 4	Monroe was inaugurated.
		The Rush–Bagot Treaty was signed.
		Harvard Law School was founded.
	December 10	Mississippi became the 20th state.
1818		The Cumberland Road opened.
	December 3	Illinois became the 21st state.
		The Jackson Purchase in Kentucky was obtained.
1819		Panic of 1819: The panic took place.
		The Adams–Onís Treaty, which provided for the acquisition of Florida, was signed.
		The decision in McCulloch v. Maryland prohibited state laws from infringing upon federal Constitutional authority.
		The decision in Dartmouth College v. Woodward protected the principle of honoring contracts and charters.
	December 14	Alabama became the 22nd state.
1820	January 18	Federalist William S. Archer was seated in the House representing Virginia's 17th congressional district following a special election the fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Democratic-Republican James Pleasants.
	February 1	Democratic-Republican congressman James Johnson (Virginia congressman) of Virginia's 20th congressional district resigned following his appointment to become collector of customs at Norfolk, Virginia.
	February 10	Democratic-Republican representative George Strother of Virginia's 10th congressional district resigned.
	February 16	Charles Kinsey was seated in the House representing New Jersey's at-large congressional district following a special election to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of fellow Democratic-Republican John Condit.
	March 1	Democratic-Republican congressman David Walker (Kentucky politician) of Kentucky's 6th congressional district died.
	March 6	The Missouri Compromise was signed into law, providing for the admission of the District of Maine into the Union as a free state and of the southeastern portion of the Missouri Territory into the Union as the slave state of Missouri. It further provided that any additional states admitted from part of the Missouri Territory would be slave or free depending on whether they fell south or north, respectively, of the parallel 36°30′ north.
	March 14	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Handly's Lessee v. Anthony that where a river is said to be the boundary between two states, the boundary is determined by the course of the river at its lowest point.
	March 15	The state of Maine was admitted to the Union. Massachusetts's 14th congressional district was abolished.
	Spring	Joseph Smith claimed to have had his first vision of God in Manchester, New York. See First Vision.
	April	New York gubernatorial election, 1820: Incumbent Democratic-Republican governor DeWitt Clinton of New York was reelected with fifty-one percent of the vote.
	April 24	The Land Act of 1820 was signed into law, ending the provision of credit to individual buyers of federal land and simultaneously reducing the minimum price and size of tracts that could be sold.
	3 May	The seven-member United States House Committee on Agriculture, a standing committee of the House, was established.
	12 May	The border between Kentucky and Tennessee was extended south between the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers to the parallel 36°30′ north.
	15 May	The Tenure of Office Act (1820) was passed by the Congress, limiting the term in office of civil servants to four years.
		Federalist senator Prentiss Mellen of Massachusetts resigned to become Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
		Democratic-Republican senator Walter Leake of Mississippi resigned following his appointment to the Marshals Service.
		Federalist congressman Jonathan Mason (Massachusetts politician) of Massachusetts's 1st congressional district resigned to build his law practice.
		Democratic-Republican representative David Fullerton of Pennsylvania's 5th congressional district resigned.
	26 May	Democratic-Republican congressman Edward Dowse of Massachusetts's 13th congressional district resigned.
	28 May	Democratic-Republican senator William Logan (Kentuckian) of Kentucky resigned to run for governor.
	June 12	Federalist Elijah H. Mills was elected to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Mellen's resignation.
	June 13	Democratic-Republican John Holmes (Maine politician) of Maine was elected to the Senate.
	June 14	Democratic-Republican John Chandler of Maine was elected to the Senate.
	June 15	Democratic Republican congressman Tunstall Quarles of Kentucky's 9th congressional district resigned.
	July 3	United States House of Representatives elections, 1820: The first elections to the House for the 17th Congress opened, in Louisiana.
	July 5	Louisiana gubernatorial election, 1820: Democratic-Republicans Thomas B. Robertson and Pierre Derbigny were sent to a runoff election for the governorship of Louisiana.
	July 19	A southern border between Alabama and Mississippi was demarked, resolving some confusion over a sliver of land in Mississippi's favor.
	July 26	Federalist congressman James Pindall of Virginia's 1st congressional district resigned.
		Democratic-Republican representative Zabdiel Sampson of Massachusetts's 8th congressional district resigned following his appointment of collector of customs in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
	August 28	Democratic-Republican John C. Gray was elected to fill Johnson's House seat.
		Missouri gubernatorial election, 1820: Democratic-Republican Alexander McNair was elected governor of Missouri with seventy-two percent of the vote.
	August 30	Democratic-Republican David Holmes (politician) was elected to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Leake's resignation.
	October 10	Pennsylvania's 5th congressional district special election, 1820: A special election was held to fill the seat representing Pennsylvania's 5th congressional district following Fullerton's resignation. Federalist Thomas Grubb McCullough won with fifty-one percent of the vote.
	October 18	The Choctaw and the United States concluded the Treaty of Doak's Stand, under which the former ceded roughly half their territory to Mississippi and agreed to be moved west into modern Arkansas.
	October 19	Democratic-Republican Isham Talbot was elected to fill the seat left vacant by the Logan's resignation.
	November 1	United States presidential election, 1820: Voting began for election to the presidency.
	November 6	Massachusetts's 1st congressional district special election, 1820: Democratic-Republican Benjamin Gorham was elected with fifty-eight percent of the vote to fill the seat left vacant by Mason's resignation.
	November 7	Maine's 1st congressional district special election, 1820: Federalist Joseph Dane was elected with fifty-four percent of the vote to fill the House seat left vacant by Holmes, previously of Massachusetts's 14th congressional district.
		Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, 1820: Federalist Joseph Hiester defeated incumbent governor William Findlay (governor) of Pennsylvania with fifty-one percent of the vote.
	November 13	Democratic-Republicans Thomas Love Moore, Francis Johnson, William Eustis, Thomas Montgomery (American politician) and Edward B. Jackson were seated following their elections to fill the House seats left vacant by Strother, Walker, Dowse, Quarles and Pindall, respectively.
	November 24	Massachusetts's 8th congressional district special election, 1820: Democratic-Republican Aaron Hobart was elected with sixty-nine percent of the vote to fill the House seat left vacant by Sampson's resignation.
	December 6	United States presidential election, 1820: Voting ended. Monroe was reelected with eighty-one percent of the vote.
	December	Hiester resigned his House seat representing Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district.
	December 17	Democratic-Republican representative Nathaniel Hazard of Rhode Island's at-large congressional district died.
	December 20	Federalist congressman Jesse Slocumb of North Carolina's 4th congressional district died.
	December 25	Federalist senator James Burrill Jr. died.
1821	August 10	Missouri becomes the 24th state.
1823		The Monroe Doctrine is proclaimed.
1824		The decision in Gibbons v. Ogden affirms federal over state authority in interstate commerce.
		U.S. presidential election: An election is held with inconclusive results.
1825	6 January	North Carolina's 2nd congressional district special election, 1825: Democratic-Republican George Outlaw was elected to the House from North Carolina's 2nd congressional district, filling a seat left vacant by the resignation of Hutchins Gordon Burton.
	20 January	The United States and the Choctaw signed the Treaty of Washington City, under which the former ceded some land in modern Arkansas in exchange for a permanent annuity, in Washington, D.C.
	7 February	Democratic-Republican Richard Henry Wilde of Georgia was seated in the House following a special election to the seat left vacant by the resignation of Thomas W. Cobb.
	9 February	United States presidential election, 1824: John Quincy Adams was elected president by the House, winning thirteen of twenty-four states.
	12 February	The United States and several unauthorized representatives of the Muscogee signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, under which the latter ceded their territory east of the Mississippi River to Georgia and Alabama.
	14 February	United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 1824–25: National Republican William Marks was elected to the Senate from Pennsylvania with fifty-five percent of the vote after thirty-two ballots.
	2 March	Capture of the Anne: American, Danish West Indian and Colombian ships captured the flagship of the pirate Roberto Cofresí in the Caribbean Sea.
	3 March	Congressman James Allison, Jr. of Pennsylvania's 16th congressional district resigned his seat.
		The Crimes Act of 1825, which extended the authority of the federal government to prosecute a number of crimes and which included the first Assimilative Crimes Act, extending the laws of the surrounding states into federal enclaves, was signed into law.
	4 March	Inauguration of John Quincy Adams: John Quincy Adams was inaugurated president in the House chamber of the Capitol.
		Henry Clay resigned his House seat representing Kentucky's 3rd congressional district following his appointment as Secretary of State.
	7 March	Congressman Joel Roberts Poinsett of South Carolina's 1st congressional district resigned following his appointment as ambassador to Mexico.
		Senator James Barbour of Virginia resigned following his appointment as Secretary of War.
	8 March	New Hampshire's at-large congressional district special election, 1825: Titus Brown was unanimously elected to the House from New Hampshire in a special election caused by representative-elect James Miller's declining to serve.
	16 March	Levi Woodbury was installed as senator from New Hampshire.
	17 May	South Carolina's 1st congressional district special election, 1825: William Drayton was elected to the House from South Carolina's 1st congressional district with seventy-five percent of the vote, filling the seat left vacant by Poinsett's resignation.
	26 May	The American Unitarian Association was established.
	3 June	The Kaw ceded much of their territory in Missouri and modern Kansas to the United States.
	1 August	Kentucky's 3rd congressional district special election, 1825: James Clark was elected with fifty-nine percent of the vote to fill the House seat representing Kentucky's 3rd congressional district, vacant since Clay's resignation.
	4 August	Missouri governor Frederick Bates died, probably of pneumonia.
	19 August	The United States negotiated and signed the First Treaty of Prairie du Chien, under which the Sioux agreed to borders with the Sac and Fox, Menominee, Iowa, Ho-Chunk and the Council of Three Fires and pledged to remain at peace with them.
	26 August	Pennsylvania's 16th congressional district special election, 1825: Robert Orr, Jr. was elected to the House from Pennsylvania's 16th congressional district in a special election to fill the vacancy left by Allison's resignation.
	25 September	Senator David Holmes of Mississippi resigned following his election as governor.
	28 September	Powhatan Ellis was appointed senator from Mississippi.
	14 October	Senator Andrew Jackson of Tennessee resigned his seat.
	28 October	Hugh Lawson White was elected to the Senate from Tennessee, filling the seat left vacant by Jackson's resignation.
	31 October	Senator James DeWolf of Rhode Island resigned. The Rhode Island General Assembly elected Asher Robbins his successor.
	7 November	Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy: Lawyer Jereboam O. Beauchamp murdered attorney general Solomon P. Sharp of Kentucky at his home in Frankfort, Kentucky over an affair Sharp had with Beauchamp's wife before their marriage.
		The United States and the Shawnee signed the Treaty of St. Louis, under which the latter sold the territory around Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
	5 December	The United States and Central America signed the United States–Central America Treaty, under which each granted the other most favoured nation status with respect to trade.
	8 December	Missouri gubernatorial special election, 1825: Democrat John Miller was elected governor of Missouri to complete Bates's term, with forty-eight percent of the vote.
	9 December	The Committee on Agriculture, now the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, a standing committee of the Senate, was established.
	15 December	Daniel Hugunin, Jr. replaced Egbert Ten Eyck in the House seat representing New York's 20th congressional district following his successful challenge of the election in which Eyck prevailed.
	26 December	Congressman John Randolph of Virginia's 5th congressional district resigned his seat following his appointment to fill Barbour's vacant Senate seat representing Virginia.
1826	July 4	Former presidents Jefferson and John Adams die within hours of each other; ironically on Independence Day.
1828		Nullification Crisis: The South Carolina Exposition and Protest is published.
		Construction begins on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
	December 2	U.S. presidential election, 1828: Andrew Jackson is elected President; Calhoun continues as Vice President.
1829	March 4	Jackson is inaugurated.
1830		Second Great Awakening: A Christian revival takes place.
		The Oregon Trail comes into use by settlers migrating to the Pacific Northwest.
	May 28	The Indian Removal Act is passed.
1831		A revolt led by Nat Turner occurs.
		Publication of The Liberator begins.
		Cyrus McCormick invents the reaper.
		Petticoat Affair: The affair took place.
1832		The Supreme Court rules in favor of the Cherokee Nation in Worcester v. State of Georgia.
		Black Hawk War: The war takes place.
		The Tariff of 1832 is passed.
		The Ordinance of Nullification is passed by South Carolina.
		The Department of Indian Affairs is established.
		United States presidential election: Jackson is reelected President; Martin Van Buren is elected Vice President of the United States.
		Bank War: Jackson vetoes the charter renewal of the Second Bank of the United States.
		Calhoun resigns the Vice Presidency.
1833		The Force Bill, expanding Presidential powers, is passed.
		Jackson's second inauguration is held.
1834		Slavery debates takes place at Lane Theological Seminary.
1835		Texas Revolution: The revolution begins.
		Alexis De Tocqueville's Democracy in America is published.
		Second Seminole War: A war begins in Florida with Seminole resistance to relocation.
1836		Battle of the Alamo: The battle takes place.
		Battle of San Jacinto: The battle takes place.
		Creek War of 1836: The war takes place.
		Samuel Colt invents the revolver.
		The original "Gag Rule", a bar on discussion of antislavery petitions passed by the House, is imposed.
		The Specie Circular is issued.
	June 15	Arkansas becomes the 25th state.
		U.S. presidential election: Van Buren is elected President, Richard Mentor Johnson Vice President.
1837		Van Buren is inaugurated.
		The United States recognizes the Republic of Texas.
		Caroline Affair: The affair takes place.
	January 26	Michigan becomes the 26th state.
		Oberlin College begins enrolling female students.
		Panic of 1837: The panic takes place.
		A decision in Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge reverses a decision in Dartmouth College v. Woodward and affirms that property rights can be overridden by public need.
1838		The forced removal of the Cherokee Nation from the Southeastern United States along the Trail of Tears led to the deaths of more than 4,000 Native American Indians.
		Aroostook War: The war takes place.
1840		United States presidential election: An election is held.
1841		William Henry Harrison becomes President.
		John Quincy Adams argues the case United States v. The Amistad before the Supreme Court.
		United States v. The Amistad is decided.
		President Harrison dies after only a month in office.
		John Tyler becomes President.
1842	August 9	The Webster–Ashburton Treaty is signed.
		Dorr Rebellion: A civil war takes place in Rhode Island.
1843		An attempt to impeach Tyler fails.
1844		U.S. presidential election, 1844: An election is held.
1845	January 14	United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 1845: Democrat Daniel Sturgeon of Pennsylvania was reelected to the Senate with fifty-four percent of the vote.
	January 18	United States Senate elections in New York, 1845: Democrats Daniel S. Dickinson and John Adams Dix of New York were elected by strong majorities to fill the Senate seats left vacant by the resignations of Nathaniel P. Tallmadge and Democrat Silas Wright.
	January 23	Congress passed the Presidential Election Day Act, establishing the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as the day on which electors of the Electoral College are elected in all states.
	February	Israel Dammon trial: Israel Dammon was tried in Atkinson, Maine for disturbing the peace after leading a congregation of Millerites in worship.
	March 3	The Florida Territory was admitted to the union as the state of Florida.
	March 4	Inauguration of James K. Polk: Democrat James K. Polk was sworn in as president in Washington, D.C..
		Democratic senator Daniel Elliott Huger of South Carolina resigned.
	March 5	Democratic senators James Buchanan of Pennsylvania and Robert J. Walker of Mississippi resigned following appointments as secretary of state and secretary of the Treasury, respectively.
	March 13	United States Senate special election in Pennsylvania, 1845: Democrat Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania was elected to the Senate after five ballots in a special election to fill the vacancy left by Buchanan's resignation.
	March 16	Whig senator Isaac C. Bates of Massachusetts died.
	March 24	Whig John Davis (Massachusetts governor) was elected senator from Massachusetts to fill the vacancy left by Bates's death.
	April 10	Great Fire of Pittsburgh: A fire in Pittsburgh burned roughly a third of the city and killed two.
	8 May	A gathering of Triennial Convention Baptists met in Augusta, Georgia to establish a new church, the Southern Baptist Convention, following disputes over slavery.
	May	Whig John M. Berrien resigned his Senate seat representing Georgia following his appointment to the Supreme Court of Georgia.
	26 May	United States House of Representatives election in Florida, 1845: Democrat David Levy Yulee was elected with sixty percent of the vote to the House seat representing Florida.
	28 May	Milwaukee Bridge War: Residents of the east side of what is now Milwaukee destroyed two bridges leading to the west side over the Milwaukee and Menomonee Rivers.
	July 1	Democrats David Levy Yulee and James Westcott were elected to the Senate from Florida.
	July 19	Great New York City Fire of 1845: A fire in New York City killed thirty, including four firefighters.
	July 30	Whig congressman Samuel G. Wright of New Jersey's 2nd congressional district died.
	October 10	The United States Naval Academy was founded.
	November 3	Democrat Joseph W. Chalmers was appointed to fill the Mississippi Senate seat left vacant by Walker's resignation.
	November 4	United States House of Representatives elections, 1844: The last elections to the House for the 29th Congress, in Mississippi, were held. The Democratic Party retained a significant majority. The nativist Know Nothing party won six seats.
		Democrat George Sykes (New Jersey politician) was seated following a special election to fill the House seat representing New Jersey's 2nd congressional district, vacant since Wright's death.
	November 10	Democratic representative John Slidell of Louisiana's 1st congressional district resigned following his appointment as minister to Mexico.
	November 11	Whig congressman Joseph Hopkins Peyton of Tennessee's 8th congressional district died.
	November 13	Berrien was reelected to his Senate seat representing Georgia.
	November 20	Democratic senator Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire following his appointment to the Supreme Court.
	November 26	Calhoun was elected to the Senate from South Carolina to fill the vacancy left by Huger's resignation.
	December 1	Democrat Benning W. Jenness was appointed to fill the Senate seat from New Hampshire left vacant by Woodbury's resignation.
	December 3	Democrat Isaac S. Pennybacker was elected to the Senate from Virginia.
	December 29	Texas annexation: Polk signed into law a bill admitting the Republic of Texas into the union as the state of Texas.
1846		Mexican–American War: The war begins.
	December 28	Iowa becomes the 29th state.
		The Wilmot Proviso is introduced.
1848		U.S. presidential election: An election is held.
		Seneca Falls Convention for women rights. They wrote the Declaration of Sentiments which they added women to the Declaration of Independence.
	May 29	Wisconsin becomes the 30th state.
	February 2	Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the war.
1849		Zachary Taylor becomes President.
		California Gold Rush: The gold rush begins.
1850	12 January	Thomas Pratt was elected to the Senate from Maryland, replacing fellow Whig who had until then held it by appointment to fill a vacancy.
	21 February	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Sheldon v. Sill that the Congress, which has the power under the Constitution to institute lower courts of the judiciary, also has the power to limit their jurisdiction.
	3 March	Whig congressman Thomas Butler King of Georgia's 1st congressional district resigned.
	4 March	Democrat Joseph Webber Jackson was seated following a special election to fill the vacant House seat representing Georgia's 1st congressional district.
	31 March	Calhoun died of tuberculosis in Washington, D.C.
	11 April	Democrat Franklin H. Elmore was appointed from South Carolina to fill Calhoun's Senate seat.
	16 April	Gila Expedition: Californian volunteers launched a punitive expedition against the Quechan.
	19 April	The United States and the United Kingdom signed the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, under which each promised to maintain the neutrality of a proposed canal through Nicaragua and not to occupy or colonize any territory in Central America.
		Ohio Women's Convention at Salem in 1850: A women's rights meeting convened at Salem, Ohio.
	20 April	Ohio Women's Convention at Salem in 1850: The Convention drafted a petition to the upcoming Ohio state constitutional convention asking that women be granted the franchise as well as civil and political rights equal to those of men.
	15 May	Bloody Island massacre: An American punitive expedition killed as many as one hundred Pomo civilians on an island in Clear Lake.
	22 May	First Grinnell Expedition: An expedition to determine the fate of John Franklin, a British officer disappeared in the Arctic Ocean, departed New York.
	29 May	Elmore died in Washington, D.C.
	3 June	Nashville Convention: A convention of delegates from nine slave states met in Nashville, Tennessee.
		Cayuse War: Five Cayuse were hanged for the 1847 murder of fourteen missionaries near modern Walla Walla, Washington.
	4 June	Democrat Robert Woodward Barnwell was appointed to fill the vacant Senate seat from South Carolina.
	10 June	Nashville Convention: The Convention resolved to propose the extension of the Missouri Compromise line west to the Pacific Ocean.
	29 June	The House unseated congressman William Thompson of Iowa's 1st congressional district due to the contested nature of his election and demanded a special election be held to fill the seat.
	9 July	Taylor died after a gastrointestinal illness.
	10 July	Inauguration of Millard Fillmore: Vice president Millard Fillmore was sworn in as president at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
	20 July	Senator Thomas Corwin of Ohio resigned his seat following his appointment as Secretary of the Treasury. Fellow Whig Thomas Ewing was appointed to fill his seat.
	22 July	Whig senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts resigned his seat following his appointment as Secretary of State.
	30 July	Whig congressman Robert Charles Winthrop of Massachusetts's 1st congressional district was appointed to fill Webster's vacant seat in the Senate representing Massachusetts.
	5 August	United States House of Representatives elections, 1850: The first regular elections to the House for the 32nd Congress were held, in Iowa and Missouri.
	14 August	Squatters' riot: A riot broke out between settlers in New Helvetia and supporters of John Sutter's claim to the land in which five people were killed.
	17 August	Whig congressman Charles Magill Conrad of Louisiana's 2nd congressional district resigned following his appointment as Secretary of War.
	22 August	Whig Samuel Atkins Eliot was seated in the House following a special election in Massachusetts's 1st congressional district.
	1 September	Jenny Lind tour of America, 1850–52: Swedish singer Jenny Lind arrived in New York.
	9 September	California was admitted to the union as a free state. The Utah and New Mexico Territories were organized. Whether slavery was to be permitted or forbidden in each territory was left to its residents. See Compromise of 1850.
		Whig congressman James Wilson II of New Hampshire's 3rd congressional district resigned.
	10 September	California elected Democrats John C. Frémont and William M. Gwin to the Senate.
		Whig congressman Henry Nes of Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district died.
	11 September	The House seated George Washington Wright and Democrat Edward Gilbert of California.
	18 September	The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, eliminating the last civil and political rights of escaped slaves and imposing serious penalties for harboring or failing to arrest fugitives.
	20 September	The slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C.
	27 September	The Donation Land Claim Act was signed into law, granting free plots of land to white and half-blooded Native American settlers of the Oregon Territory.
	28 September	Congress passed the Swamp Land Act of 1850, providing a mechanism for the transfer of swamp land from the federal government to the states for drainage and improvement.
	5 October	Whig congressman Chester Pierce Butler of Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district died.
	8 October	Democrat George W. Morrison was seated in the House following a special election in New Hampshire's 3rd congressional district, filling Wilson's vacancy.
	14 October	Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850: A state constitutional convention convened in Virginia to address the disenfranchisement of the state's west.
	24 October	Democratic congressman John H. Harmanson of Louisiana's 3rd congressional district died.
	5 November	New Jersey gubernatorial election, 1850: Democrat George Franklin Fort defeated Whig John Runk with fifty-four percent of the vote to become governor of New Jersey.
		New York state election, 1850: Elections were held to statewide office in New York. Whig candidate Washington Hunt was narrowly elected governor.
	13 November	Democrat John Brisbin was seated following a special election to fill Butler's vacant House seat representing Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district.
	19 November	Democratic congressman Amos E. Wood of Ohio's 6th congressional district died.
	2 December	Democrat Joel Buchanan Danner was seated in the House following a special election in Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district to fill Nes's vacancy.
	5 December	Whig Henry Adams Bullard was seated in the House following a special election from Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, filling Conrad's vacancy.
	9 December	The United Kingdom ceded one acre of underwater rock in Lake Erie to the United States.
	10 December	A specially elected convention in Georgia adopted the Georgia Platform accepting the Compromise of 1850 but warning against infringement of the rights of states in the South.
	13 December	The federal government assumed Texas's debt. In exchange, Texas officially renounced its territorial claims in the New Mexico Territory.
	18 December	Democrat Robert Rhett was elected to the Senate from South Carolina, replacing Barnwell.
	20 December	Democrat Daniel F. Miller was seated in the House following a special election in Iowa's 1st congressional district.
	30 December	Democrat Alexander G. Penn was seated following a special election in Louisiana's 3rd congressional district to Harmanson's vacant House seat.
1852		U.S. presidential election: An election is held.
1852		Uncle Tom's Cabin: Uncle Tom's Cabin is published
1853		Franklin Pierce becomes President.
		Commodore Matthew Perry opens Japan.
1854		The Kansas–Nebraska Act is passed, nullifying the Missouri Compromise.
	June 8	The Gadsden Purchase is finalized.
		The Ostend Manifesto is issued.
		The Convention of Kanagawa is signed.
		William Walker leads an expedition.
1855		The Farmers' High School, later Penn State University, is founded.
1856		Sacking of Lawrence: The sacking of Lawrence takes place.
	May 24–25	Pottawatomie massacre: The massacre, led by John Brown, takes place.
		Preston Brooks beats Charles Sumner with his walking stick in the Senate chamber.
		U.S. presidential election: An election is held.
1857		James Buchanan becomes President.
		A decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford declares blacks are not citizens of the United States and, therefore, do not have the right to file lawsuits.
	May	Utah War: The war starts.
		The LeCompton Constitution is rejected in the Kansas Territory.
		Panic of 1857: The panic takes place.
1858		The first transatlantic cable is laid.
	May 11	Minnesota becomes the 32nd state.
		Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The debates are held.
		The United States becomes a party to the Treaty of Tientsin.
1859		John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry.
	February 14	Oregon becomes the 33rd state.
		The Comstock Lode is discovered.
1860		The Pony Express is founded.
		The Crittenden Compromise is reached.
	November 6	United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln is elected President of the United States.
	December 20	South Carolina seceded from the Union.
1861		Ten more states secede from the Union and established the Confederate States of America.
	January 29	Kansas becomes the 34th state.
		Jefferson Davis is elected President of the Confederacy.
		American Civil War: The war begins at Fort Sumter.
		First Battle of Bull Run: The battle takes place.
1862		Battle of Hampton Roads: A naval battle between the Monitor and Merrimack takes place.
		The Homestead Act is passed.
		The Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act is passed.
		General Robert E. Lee is placed in command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
		Second Battle of Bull Run: The battle takes place.
		Battle of Antietam: The battle takes place.
	August 17 – December 26	Dakota War of 1862: The war is fought.
1863		Battle of Gettysburg: The battle takes place.
	January 1	Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in those states that had seceded.
		Siege of Vicksburg: The siege takes place.
		New York Draft riots: Draft riots take place.
	June 20	Pro-Union counties which had seceded from Virginia become the 35th state West Virginia.
1864		General Ulysses S. Grant is put in command of all Union forces.
		The Wade–Davis Bill is passed.
		Sand Creek massacre: The massacre takes place.
	October 31	Nevada becomes the 36th state.
		U.S. presidential election: An election is held.
		Sherman's March to the Sea: The march takes place.
1865		Lee is named commander-in-chief of all Confederate forces.
		Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, is captured by a corps of black Union troops.
		Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House.
	April 15	Abraham Lincoln assassination: Lincoln is assassinated; Andrew Johnson became President.
		American Civil War: The war ends with the surrender of the last elements of the Confederacy.
		The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, permanently outlawing slavery.
		The Freedmen's Bureau is established.
1866		The Civil Rights Act of 1866 is passed.
		The Ku Klux Klan is founded.
1867		The Tenure of Office Act (1867) is enacted.
	March 1	Nebraska becomes the 37th state.
		The Alaska Purchase referred to as "Seward's Folly" by critics: The Alaska territory is purchased from Russia.
1868		Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: Johnson is impeached by the House, but acquitted by the Senate.
		The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, second of the Reconstruction Amendments, is ratified.
		Grant is elected President.
1869		The First Transcontinental Railroad is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory.
	May 15	Women's suffrage leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton found the National Woman Suffrage Association.
1870	January 1	Republican congressman Benjamin F. Hopkins died.
	January 15	Murder of John R. Bitzer: Chinese national Ah Chow fatally shot miner John R. Bitzer in Montana.
	January 18	James B. Howell was seated following a special election to the seat left vacant by the resignation of fellow Republican James W. Grimes.
	January 26	Virginia was readmitted to representation in Congress. It sent one Republican and one Democrat to the Senate and three Republicans and five Democrats, some of whom were seated over the following five days, to the House.
	February 3	The Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibits federal and state governments from denying the right to vote to any citizen on the basis of "race, color or previous condition of servitude," was ratified.
	February 5	Democratic representative Truman H. Hoag died.
	February 17	Democrat George Woodward Greene was removed from the House after Republican Charles Van Wyck, who succeeded him, challenged his credentials as a duly elected member.
	February 23	Mississippi was readmitted to representation in Congress. The Fourth Military District was dissolved. Mississippi sent four Republicans to the House and two, including the first black congressman, to the Senate.
		Republican David Atwood was seated following a special election to the seat left vacant by Hopkins's death.
	February 28	Republican congressman John T. Deweese resigned under investigation for appointments he had made to the United States Military Academy and United States Naval Academy.
	March 30	Texas was readmitted to representation in Congress. It sent two Republicans to the Senate and three Republicans and one Democrat to the House, some of whom were seated the following day.
	17 May	New York special judicial election, 1870: The Democratic Party won four seats to the Republicans' two, in addition to the chief justiceship, in a special election to the New York Court of Appeals.
	31 May	The Enforcement Act of 1870, which empowered the Marshals Service and the federal courts to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment, was signed into law.
	April 13	Democrat John Roberts Reading was removed from the House after Republican Caleb Newbold Taylor, who succeeded him, challenged his credentials as a duly elected member.
	April 23	Republican Erasmus D. Peck was seated following a special election to the seat left vacant by Hoag's death.
	June 6	United States House of Representatives elections, 1870: The first elections to the House for the 42nd Congress were held, in Oregon.
		Oregon gubernatorial election, 1870: Democrat La Fayette Grover was elected Governor of Oregon with fifty-one percent of the vote.
	June 22	A bill establishing the Department of Justice was signed into law. The law brought all United States Attorneys under the authority of the Attorney General, granted the new department exclusive authority to prosecute federal crimes, and created the office of the Solicitor General, responsible for representing the federal government before the Supreme Court.
	June 23	Republican congressman David Heaton died.
	July 1	A group of conservative members of the Virginia General Assembly organized as the Conservative Party of Virginia.
	July 12	The Currency Act of 1870 was signed into law, maintaining the supply of Demand Notes and replacing 45 million dollars in temporary loan certificates with banknotes.
	July 13	Republican senator Daniel Sheldon Norton of Minnesota died.
	July 14	Congress passed the Funding Act of 1870, authorizing the refinancing of the national debt through the issuance of long-term debt instruments.
		The Naturalization Act of 1870, which created a system of controls for the naturalization process and extended the process to persons of African origin and descent, was signed into law.
	July 15	Georgia was readmitted to representation in Congress. Its representatives were held ineligible and not seated.
		Republican William Windom was appointed to fill Norton's vacant Senate seat.
		Republican congressman Noah Davis resigned to accept an appointment as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
	September 6	Vermont gubernatorial election, 1870: Republican John Wolcott Stewart was elected Governor of Vermont with seventy-three percent of the vote.
	September 18	Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition: Explorer Henry D. Washburn observed and named Old Faithful.
	September 30	Republican representative William Smyth (congressman) died.
	October 10	South Carolina gubernatorial election, 1870: Incumbent Republican governor Robert Kingston Scott of South Carolina was reelected with sixty-two percent of the vote.
	October 16	Conservative representative Robert Ridgway (congressman) died.
	October 27	West Virginia gubernatorial election, 1870: Democrat John J. Jacob (West Virginia) defeated incumbent governor William E. Stevenson of West Virginia with fifty-two percent of the vote.
	November 8	Conservative Richard Thomas Walker Duke was seated following a special election to fill the vacancy left by Ridgway's death.
		Missouri gubernatorial election, 1870: Liberal Republican Benjamin Gratz Brown was elected governor of Missouri with sixty-two percent of the vote.
		New York state election, 1870: Elections to statewide office in New York resulted in a Democratic sweep.
	December 5	Republican Joseph Dixon (North Carolina) was seated following a special election to fill the seat left vacant by Heaton's death.
	December 6	Republicans Charles H. Holmes and William P. Wolf were seated following special elections to fill the vacancies of Davis and Smyth, respectively.
	December 19	Republican senator Charles D. Drake of Missouri resigned following his appointment as Chief Justice of the Court of Claims. Fellow Republican Daniel T. Jewett was appointed to succeed him.
1871		Great Chicago Fire: The fire occurs.
		The Treaty of Washington, 1871 is signed with the British Empire regarding the Dominion of Canada.
1872		Yellowstone National Park is created.
		Crédit Mobilier scandal: The scandal takes place.
		The Amnesty Act is passed.
		The Alabama Claims is settled.
		U.S. presidential election: An election is held.
1873		Panic of 1873: The panic takes place.
		Virginius Affair: The affair takes place.
1874		Red River Indian War
1875	14 January	The Specie Payment Resumption Act, which called for the Treasury to back United States Notes with gold, was signed into law.
	25 January	Republican congressman William J. Purman of Florida resigned.
	30 January	Hawaii and the United States signed the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, under which the United States was opened to Hawaiian sugar and Hawaii ceded territory in the area of Pearl Harbor.
	3 February	Republican congressman Samuel F. Hersey of Maine's 4th congressional district died.
	5 February	Republican senator William Alfred Buckingham of Connecticut died. His elected successor Democrat Joseph Roswell Hawley was appointed to complete his term.
	18 February	Mason County War: A group of German American cowboys attempted to break into the jail in Mason County, Texas to take its prisoners, cattle rustlers, to be lynched.
	1 March	The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was signed into law, guaranteeing blacks equal treatment in public accommodations and public transportation and making them equally eligible for jury duty.
	3 March	The Page Act of 1875, which banned the entry into the United States of prostitutes and unfree labour from Asia, came into force.
		Democrat Effingham Lawrence was seated in the House seat representing Louisiana's 1st congressional district following his successful challenge of the election of Republican J. Hale Sypher.
	7 March	Republican congressman James Buffington of Massachusetts's 1st congressional district died.
	19 March	March 1875 Southeast tornado outbreak: A two-day tornado outbreak began in which some one hundred people would be killed in the Southeast.
	29 March	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Minor v. Happersett that the Fourteenth Amendment does not grant women the right to vote.
	25 April	Rutgers–Princeton Cannon War: Rutgers College students stole a cannon from the campus of the College of New Jersey in Princeton, New Jersey.
	1 May	Democratic congressman George Augustus La Dow of Oregon died.
	5 May	Democrat Benjamin Harvey Hill was seated in the House following a special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of representative-elect Garnett McMillan.
	17 May	1875 Kentucky Derby: Aristides won the first running of the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky.
	31 July	Johnson, then representing Tennessee in the Senate, died
	18 August	Democrat David M. Key was appointed to Johnson's vacant Senate seat.
	7 September	California gubernatorial election, 1875: Democrat William Irwin was elected governor of California with fifty percent of the vote.
		United States House of Representatives elections, 1874: The last regular elections to the House for the 44th Congress were held, in California. The Democrats gained ninety seats, transforming their caucus from a small minority to a dominant majority.
	13 September	Republican Harris M. Plaisted was seated in the House following a special election in Maine's 4th congressional district to fill Hersey's vacancy.
	14 September	Colfax County War: A reverend allied with settlers on the Maxwell Land Grant was found murdered in the canyon of the Cimarron River.
	12 October	Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, 1875: Pennsylvania governor John F. Hartranft, a Republican, won reelection with fifty percent of the vote.
	23 October	Democratic congressman Samuel McClary Fite of Tennessee's 4th congressional district died.
	25 October	Democrat Lafayette Lane was seated in the House following a special election in Oregon to fill La Dow's vacancy.
	2 November	Minnesota gubernatorial election, 1875: Republican John S. Pillsbury was elected governor of Minnesota with fifty-six percent of the vote.
		New York state election, 1875: Elections were held to statewide office and to the State Assembly and State Senate in New York.
		Republican William W. Crapo was seated in the House following a special election in Massachusetts's 1st congressional district to fill Buffington's vacancy.
	20 November	Las Cuevas War: A forces of Texas Rangers crossed into Tamaulipas in pursuit of stolen cattle and came into armed conflict with Mexican militia in which at least eighty were killed.
	21 November	Las Cuevas War: The Texas Rangers took a Mexican customs officer hostage. The cattle were returned to the United States.
		Republican senator Orris S. Ferry of Connecticut died.
	27 November	Democrat James E. English was appointed to fill Ferry's vacant Senate seat.
	6 December	Republican Nelson I. Norton was seated in the House following a special election in New York's 33rd congressional district to fill the vacancy left by the death of representative-elect Augustus F. Allen, also a Republican.
	14 December	Democrat Haywood Yancey Riddle was seated in the House following a special election in Tennessee's 4th congressional district to fill Fite's vacancy.
1876		The National League of baseball is founded.
		Centennial Exposition: The Exposition, in Philadelphia, is held.
		A decision in Munn v. Illinois establishes the public regulation of utilities.
		Colorado becomes the 38th state.
		Battle of Little Bighorn: The battle takes place.
		Wild Bill Hickok is killed by a shot to the back of the head by Jack McCall while playing poker in Deadwood, South Dakota.
		Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.
		U.S. presidential election: The election produced an unclear result with 20 Electoral College votes disputed.
1877		The Electoral Commission awarded Rutherford B. Hayes the Presidency.
		Reconstruction era of the United States: The era ends.
		Nez Perce War: The war takes place.
1878		The Bland-Allison Act is passed.
		The first Morgan silver dollar is minted.
1879		Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.
		The Knights of Labor goes public.
1880		The University of Southern California is founded.
		The Population of the United States passes 50 million.
1881		Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: A gunfight takes place in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.
		James Garfield is inaugurated President of the United States.
		Garfield is assassinated.
		Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated President of the United States.
		Clara Barton created is Red Cross.
		The Tuskegee Institute is founded
		Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett.
		A Century of Dishonor is written by Helen Hunt Jackson.
1882		The Chinese Exclusion Act is passed.
		Jesse James is shot and killed by Robert Ford and Charlie Ford.
1883		Buffalo Bill Cody debuts his Wild West Show.
		A decision in the Civil Rights Cases legalizes the doctrine of racial segregation.
		The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is passed.
		The Brooklyn Bridge opens.
1885		Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as President.
		The Washington monument is completed.
1886		Haymarket riot: The riot takes place.
		The American Federation of Labor is founded in Columbus, Ohio.
1887		The United States Congress creates the Interstate Commerce Commission.
		The Dawes Act is passed.
		The Hatch Act is passed.
1888		Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy, is published.
		The National Geographic Society is founded.
1889		Benjamin Harrison becomes President
	November 2	North Dakota, South Dakota becomes the 39th and 40th states.
	November 8	Montana becomes the 41st state
	November 11	Washington becomes the 42nd state.
		Johnstown flood: A flood occurs in Pennsylvania.
		Jane Addams founds Hull House.
	April 22	Land Run of 1889: The land run begins.
1890		The Sherman Antitrust Act is passed.
		Jacob Riis publishes How the Other Half Lives.
		The Sherman Silver Purchase Act is passed.
		The McKinley tariff is passed.
		Yosemite National Park is created.
	July 3	Idaho becomes the 43rd state.
	July 10	Wyoming becomes the 44th state.
		Wounded Knee massacre: The massacre takes place.
		The National American Woman Suffrage Association is founded.
1891		Baltimore Crisis: The crisis takes place.
		James Naismith invents basketball.
1892		Homestead Strike: The strike takes place.
		General Electric is founded.
		The Sierra Club is founded
1893		Cleveland is inaugurated President for a second term.
		Panic of 1893: The panic takes place.
		The Sherman Silver Purchase Act is repealed.
1894		Coxey's Army march on Washington, D.C.
		Pullman strike: The strike takes place.
		The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, including an income tax, is passed.
1895	January 5	Democratic congressman Thomas H. Paynter of Kentucky's 9th congressional district resigned following his appointment to the Kentucky Court of Appeals.
	January 6	Republican representative Philip S. Post of Illinois's 10th congressional district died.
	January 12	Democratic congressman John C. Black of Illinois's at-large congressional district resigned.
	January 14	Congressman Julius C. Burrows of Michigan's 3rd congressional district was elected to fill the Senate seat representing Michigan fellow Republican John Patton Jr. held by appointment following the death of Republican Francis B. Stockbridge.
	January 16	Republican Lee Mantle was elected to the Senate from Montana.
	January 21	The Supreme Court reached a decision in Sparf v. United States. It established some standards for acceptable confessions and held that federal judges are not required to instruct juries of their right of jury nullification.
		In a decision in United States v. E. C. Knight Co., the Supreme Court held that the Commerce Clause does not grant the government the power to regulate manufacturers under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
	January 23	Republican Clarence D. Clark was elected to the Senate from New York.
		Jeter Connelly Pritchard was elected to fill the Senate seat representing North Carolina fellow Democrat Thomas Jordan Jarvis held by appointment following the death of Democrat Zebulon Baird Vance.
	February 18	The Maguire Act of 1895, which ended imprisonment for sailor deserters in certain cases, came into force.
	February 19	Republican John L. Wilson was elected to the Senate from Washington.
	February 23	Edwin J. Jorden was seated in the House after a special election to the seat representing Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district to fill the vacancy left by the death of fellow Republican Myron Benjamin Wright.
	February 24	Cuban War of Independence: Uprisings against Spanish rule began across Cuba.
	March 4	Jorden resigned.
		In a decision in Coffin v. United States, the Supreme Court held that criminal defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and that judges presiding over juries must advise them of that fact.
		Democratic congressman James C. C. Black of Georgia's 10th congressional district resigned.
	March 12	1895 New Orleans dockworkers riot: A mob of white union dockworkers killed six blacks in New Orleans following an announcement that many of them would be laid off and replaced with cheaper black labor.
	April 8	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. that a law imposing taxes on individual interest, dividends and rents violated the Constitution because the taxes were not appropriately apportioned.
	April 27	Nicaragua Crisis of 1895: Great Britain occupied Corinto, Nicaragua following Nicaragua's annexation of the Mosquito Coast.
	May 6	1895 Kentucky Derby: Halma won a running of the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky.
	May 15	Nicaragua Crisis of 1895: British forces were forced to withdraw from Corinto, Nicaragua under the terms of the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty.
	May 22	Republican congressman William Cogswell of Massachusetts's 6th congressional district died.
	May 23	Land Run of 1895: A run took place on former Kickapoo land in the Oklahoma Territory.
	May 27	In a decision in In re Debs, the Supreme Court held that a federal injunction ordering participants in the Pullman Strike back to work was authorized under the Commerce Clause.
	June 3	The Supreme Court reached a decision in Hilton v. Guyot in which it described the application of the principle of comity to the enforcement of foreign judgments in the United States.
	July	Venezuelan crisis of 1895: Secretary of state Richard Olney issued the Olney Proclamation, declaring that under the Monroe Doctrine the United States must intervene in a border dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana.
	July 14	Republican congressman Frederick Remann of Illinois's 18th congressional district died.
	July 25	A network of exchanges, now the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, was established by a general order of the Department of War.
	September 18	The Cotton States and International Exposition opened in Atlanta.
		Atlanta Exposition Speech: Leading black intellectual Booker T. Washington delivered a speech in Atlanta advocating for the Atlanta Compromise, which would preserve segregation and white political supremacy but allow blacks due process and basic education.
	October 2	Black was reelected to his own House seat.
	October 4	1895 U.S. Open: Horace Rawlins won the inaugural U.S. Open in Newport, Rhode Island.
	October 26	1895 Georgia vs. North Carolina football game: The North Carolina Tar Heels defeated the Georgia Bulldogs in a college football game in Atlanta.
	November 5	United States House of Representatives election in Utah, 1895: Republican Clarence Emir Allen was elected to the House from Utah's at-large congressional district with fifty percent of the vote.
		Republicans James Hodge Codding and William Henry Moody were seated in the House seats left vacant by Jorden and Cogswell, respectively.
		New York state election, 1895: Republicans were elected to several statewide offices in New York.
	November 28	Chicago Times-Herald race: Engineer Charles Duryea won an automobile race from Chicago to Evanston, Illinois.
	December 2	Republicans George W. Prince, Alfred Milnes and William F. L. Hadley were seated in the House seats left vacant by Post, Burrows and Remann, respectively.
	December 27	Democratic congressman Lawrence E. McGann was removed from the House following a successful challenge of his credentials by his election opponent, Republican Hugh R. Belknap.
1896		A decision in Plessy v. Ferguson affirms the legality of "separate but equal" public facilities.
	July 9	William Jennings Bryan delivered his Cross of Gold speech.
		Gold was discovered in the Yukon's Klondike region.
	January 4	Utah became the 45th state.
1897	March 4	William McKinley became President.
		The Boston subway was completed.
		The Dingley Act was passed.
1898	February 15	The USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor.
		The De Lôme Letter was published.
		Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris (1898) ended the war.
	July 7	The Republic of Hawaii was annexed.
		The Newlands Resolution was passed.
		The American Anti-Imperialist League was organized.
1899		The Teller Amendment was passed.
		American Samoa was occupied.
		The Open Door Policy was announced.
1900	January 2	Secretary of State John Hay called for an Open Door Policy among the major powers dividing China into spheres of influence and permitting its free trade with all of them.
	January 8	McKinley annexed some of the Arizona Territory to the Navajo Nation, extending its boundaries west to the Colorado River.
		McKinley placed Alaska under martial law.
	January 15	Democrat June Ward Gayle was seated in the House following a special election in Kentucky's 7th congressional district to fill the vacancy left by the death in November of Democrat Evan E. Settle.
	January 25	Democratic congressman-elect B. H. Roberts of Utah was expelled from the House for practicing polygamy.
	January 30	Sibley Quarry explosion: A dynamite explosion at a quarry north of Trenton, Michigan killed one worker.
	February 7	Republican Thomas R. Bard was elected to the Senate from California.
		San Francisco plague of 1900–1904: The first victim of plague in San Francisco fell ill in Chinatown.
	February 13	Republican congressman Charles A. Chickering of New York's 24th congressional district died after falling from a fourth-story window in New York.
	February 15	Fairbank Train Robbery: An attempted robbery of a Wells Fargo express car was thwarted in Fairbank, Arizona. One would-be robber was killed.
	February 19	McKinley placed Tutuila under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy.
	March 3	Democratic congressman Sidney Parham Epes of Virginia's 4th congressional district died in Washington, D.C. following an appendectomy.
	March 6	Republican representative Alfred C. Harmer of Pennsylvania's 5th congressional district died.
	March 8	Democratic congressman Gaston A. Robbins of Alabama's 4th congressional district was unseated after it was determined that Republican William F. Aldrich had beaten him in his election.
	March 12	Democratic representative William Albin Young of Virginia's 2nd congressional district was removed from office following a contest of his 1898 election by his opponent, Republican Richard Alsop Wise.
	March 13	Aldrich was seated in the House seat representing Alabama's 4th congressional district.
	March 14	The Gold Standard Act, which established gold as the only standard for redeeming paper money, ending the use of silver, was signed into law.
	March 16	William McKinley appointed the Taft Commission, a five-member commission headed by William Howard Taft, to act as a civilian government for the Philippines.
	March 17	Military governor Richard P. Leary of Guam abolished slavery on the island.
		Philippine–American War: American forces captured Bohol.
	April 7	Austin Dam failure: A dam near Austin, Texas burst, killing some one hundred people.
		Battle of Cagayan de Misamis: American forces repelled a Philippine surprise attack at Cagayan de Oro.
	April 12	The Foraker Act establishing a civilian government for Puerto Rico was signed into law.
	April 15	Siege of Catubig: Philippine forces attacked and besieged an American force at Catubig, Northern Samar.
	April 17	The United States and indigenous chiefs on Tutuila signed the Treaty of Cession of Tutuila recognizing American sovereignty over the island.
		Louisiana gubernatorial election, 1900: Democrat William Wright Heard was elected governor of Louisiana with seventy-eight percent of the vote.
	April 19	Siege of Catubig: The American forces at Catubig, Northern Samar were rescued. The town fell to Philippine forces.
	April 20	Democratic congressman Joseph Wheeler, serving in the Regular Army in the Philippines, resigned his seat representing Alabama's 8th congressional district.
	April 24	The Senate declined to seat Republican Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania due to a controversy over his misappropriation of state funds.
	April 25	Democrat William H. King of Utah was seated in the House.
	April 26	Wise was seated in the House seat representing Virginia's 2nd congressional district.
	April 30	The Hawaiian Organic Act organizing the Territory of Hawaii and granting citizenship of the United States to its residents was signed into law.
	May 1	Charles Herbert Allen took office as governor of Puerto Rico.
		Scofield Mine disaster: A dust explosion at a mine near Scofield, Utah killed over two hundred miners.
	May 3	1900 Kentucky Derby: Lieut. Gibson won a running of the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky.
	May 5	Arthur MacArthur Jr. took office as Governor-General of the Philippines.
	May 9	St. Louis streetcar strike of 1900: A riot developed in St. Louis amid the first day of a strike by the members of the local Amalgamated Street Railway Employees of America, now the Amalgamated Transit Union.
	May 12	The United States District Court for the Western District of New York was established.
	May 14	Battle of Agusan Hill: An American regiment dislodged Philippine forces from a hill in Cagayan de Oro.
	May 15	Senator William A. Clark of Montana resigned under pressure from the Senate due to revelations that he had bribed members of the Montana Legislature for his election.
	May 18	Democrat Martin Maginnis was appointed to the Senate from Montana.
	May 21	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Taylor v. Beckham that state elected office is not property for the purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment and that it had no jurisdiction in the case, which pertained to a disputed gubernatorial election in Kentucky.
	May 25	The Lacey Act of 1900, which criminalizes the taking of illegally captured wildlife across state lines, was signed into law.
	June 1	1900 United States Census: A census began to be taken which would count some eighty million in the United States and whose subsequent congressional apportionment would grant the greatest increases in representation to Illinois, New York and Texas.
	June 4	Battle of Makahambus Hill: A Philippine force ambushed and pinned down an American battalion in modern Cagayan de Oro, dealing some twenty casualties before withdrawing.
	June 10	Seymour Expedition: An expedition of the Eight-Nation Alliance led by the British vice admiral Edward Seymour departed Tianjin to protect foreign diplomats in Beijing.
	June 16	Cuban local elections, 1900: The pro-independence Cuban National Party did better than expected in Cuban local elections.
	June 18	Battle of Langfang: Boxers surrounded and ambushed an Eight-Nation Alliance force at Langfang, killing seven and forcing their retreat to Tianjin.
	June 20	Siege of the International Legations: German diplomat Clemens von Ketteler was murdered on his way to request the protection of the Chinese government against Boxer rebels approaching the Beijing Legation Quarter in Beijing.
	June 21	Boxer Rebellion: China declared war on the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan.
		1900 Republican National Convention: McKinley was unanimously nominated the candidate of the Republican Party for the presidency at a convention in Philadelphia. Governor Theodore Roosevelt of New York was unanimously nominated the Republican candidate for the vice presidency minus his own abstention.
	June 30	1900 Hoboken Docks fire: A fire at the Hoboken, New Jersey docks of New York Harbor killed some three hundred people.
	July 4	Tacoma Streetcar Disaster: A streetcar left the tracks at a sharp curve in Tacoma, Washington, plunging into a ravine and killing forty passengers.
		1900 Democratic National Convention: At a convention in Kansas City, Missouri, the Democratic Party adopted a platform deploring the occupation of Cuba and the Philippines and calling for bimetallism and the regulation of monopolies.
	July 5	1900 Democratic National Convention: The Democratic Party nominated Bryan its nominee for the presidency and former vice president Adlai Stevenson I its nominee for the vice presidency.
	July 13	Battle of Tientsin: The Eight-Nation Alliance attacked Tianjin, where Boxers and Chinese forces had their nationals under siege.
	July 14	Battle of Tientsin: The Eight-Nation Alliance took Tianjin.
	July 24	Robert Charles riots: An angry crowd of whites gathered in New Orleans after a white police officer was shot and killed by black laborer Robert Charles.
	August 4	Gaselee Expedition: An Eight-Nation Alliance army departed Tianjin for Beijing.
	August 5	Battle of Beicang: An Eight-Nation Alliance army on the march from Tianjin to Beijing dispatched the first Chinese army sent to stop them, at Beicang, six miles from Tianjin.
	August 6	Battle of Yangcun: The Eight-Nation Alliance defeated a Chinese force at Yangcun, some twenty miles from Tianjin.
	August 7	1900 Westchester County tornado: A tornado caused some fifteen thousand dollars in damage near New Rochelle, New York
	August 8	1900 International Lawn Tennis Challenge: A lawn tennis tournament began in Boston in which the American team would beat the British.
	August 14	Battle of Peking (1900): An army of the Eight-Nation Alliance arrived at Beijing and came into conflict with Boxers and Chinese government troops.
August 15	Battle of Peking (1900): Eight-Nation Alliance forces expelled the last Boxer and Chinese government forces from Beijing. The Chinese empress dowager Empress Dowager Cixi fled.
September 4	Vermont gubernatorial election, 1900: William W. Stickney won seventy-two percent of the vote to succeed fellow Republican Edward Curtis Smith as governor of Vermont.
September 8	1900 Galveston hurricane: A hurricane made landfall at Galveston, Texas which would kill as many as twelve thousand people in a single day.
September 13	Battle of Pulang Lupa: A Philippine force ambushed and decisively defeated an American one at Marinduque.
September 15	Cuban Constitutional Assembly election, 1900: An election was held to an upcoming constitutional convention in Cuba. A coalition of the conservative Republican and Democratic Union Parties won a majority of seats.
September 17	Battle of Mabitac: A Philippine force dealt heavy casualties to an American one at Mabitac, Laguna.
October 8	Murder of George E. Bailey: Farmer George E. Bailey was shot and killed by his alcoholic employee John C. Best at his farm in Saugus, Massachusetts.
October 15	Burt Lake burn-out: A sheriff in northern Michigan permitted a local land speculator to burn the homes of the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians on the strength of his purchase of the tax title to their land.
October 18	Chronicle-Telegraph Cup: The Brooklyn Superbas beat the Pittsburg Pirates in the fourth baseball game of a best-of-five series in Pittsburgh.
November 2	Alabama gubernatorial election, 1900: Democrat William J. Samford was elected governor of Alabama with seventy-one percent of the vote.
November 5	A constitutional convention for Cuba opened in Havana.
November 6	United States presidential election, 1900: McKinley was reelected president with fifty-two percent of the vote.
	United States House of Representatives elections, 1900: The Republican Party gained seats in the House, increasing its majority at the expense of the Democratic and People's Parties.
	Minnesota gubernatorial election, 1900: Republican candidate Samuel Rinnah Van Sant defeated Democratic incumbent John Lind with forty-nine percent of the vote to become governor of Minnesota.
	Missouri gubernatorial election, 1900: Democrat Alexander Monroe Dockery was elected governor of Missouri with fifty-one percent of the vote.
	New York state election, 1900: An election was held to statewide office in New York which produced victories for the entire Republican ticket.
	South Carolina gubernatorial election, 1900: Democrat Miles Benjamin McSweeney was elected governor of South Carolina, running unopposed.
	South Dakota gubernatorial election, 1900: Republican Charles N. Herreid was elected governor of South Dakota with fifty-six percent of the vote.
	West Virginia gubernatorial election, 1900: Republican Albert B. White was elected governor of West Virginia with fifty-four percent of the vote.
November 7	Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Washington, clarifying in exchange for one hundred thousand dollars the Treaty of Paris to indicate that Spain ceded to the United States the islands of Mapun and Sibutu.
	The working class People's Party was founded in Cuba.
November 27	Republican senator Cushman Kellogg Davis of Minnesota died.
December 3	Los Angeles mayoral election, 1900: Democrat Meredith P. Snyder was elected mayor of Los Angeles with fifty-eight percent of the vote.

20th century

Year	Date	Event
1901	September 14	President William McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, New York.
	September 14	Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as president, after the assassination of President McKinley.
	November 18	The Hay–Pauncefote Treaty was signed.
1902	January 1	The first Rose Bowl Game was played between the University of Michigan and Stanford University.
	February 19	The Elkins Act was signed into law.
		The Drago Doctrine was announced.
	June 17	The Newlands Reclamation Act was signed into law.
1903	January 22	The Hay–Herrán Treaty was passed.
	June 16	The Ford Motor Company was formed.
	February 14	The Department of Commerce and Labor was created.
	October 1	The first World Series was played between the Boston Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates.
	November 18	The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty was signed.
	December 1	The movie The Great Train Robbery premieres.
	December 17	The Wright brothers made their first powered flight in the Wright Flyer.
1904		The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine was issued.
	May 4	The Panama Canal Zone was acquired by the United States from France for $40 million.
	November 8	United States presidential election, 1904: President Theodore Roosevelt was reelected to a second term, defeating New York Appeals Court Judge Alton B. Parker.
1905	July 11–14	The Niagara Falls conference was held.
	September 5	The Treaty of Portsmouth, negotiated by President Theodore Roosevelt, was signed, ending the Russo-Japanese War.
1906	March 13	Women's suffrage and civil rights activist Susan B. Anthony died.
	April 18	The 1906 San Francisco earthquake killed over 3,400 people and destroyed over 80% of San Francisco; being the deadliest earthquake in American history.
	June 29	The Hepburn Act was signed into law.
	June 30	The Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act were signed; establishing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
	December 10	President Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese war; becoming the first statesman to win a Nobel Prize.
1907	January 26	The Tillman Act was signed into law.
	February 26	The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 was signed.
	November 17	Oklahoma was admitted to the Union, becoming the 46th state.
	December 6	Monongah Mining Disaster: A coal mine exploded in Monongah, West Virginia, killing at least 361.
1908	May 30	The Aldrich–Vreeland Act was signed into law.
	July 26	The Bureau of Investigation (later the FBI) was established.
	October 1	The Ford Model T appeared on the market.
	November 3	United States presidential election, 1908: U.S. Secretary of War William Howard Taft was elected President, defeating former Nebraska Representative William Jennings Bryan.
	November 30	The Root–Takahira Agreement was reached.
1909		William Howard Taft implemented Dollar Diplomacy.
	February 12	The NAACP was founded by W. E. B. Du Bois.
	April 7	Robert Peary became the first person to reach the North Pole.
	August 2	The first redesigned Lincoln Penny was released to the public.
1910	February 8	The Boy Scouts of America was created.
	June 18	The Mann–Elkins Act was signed into law.
		The Mann Act was signed into law.
	August 6	The Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act was signed into law.
1911	May 15	Standard Oil Company v. United States: The Supreme Court found Standard Oil guilty of monopolizing the petroleum industry; subsequently dividing Standard Oil into several geographically separate firms.
	May 30	The first Indianapolis 500 was held; being won by Ray Harroun.
1912	January 6	New Mexico was admitted to the Union, becoming the 47th.
	February 14	Arizona was admitted to the Union, becoming the 48th state.
	March 12	Girl Scouts of the USA was created by Juliette Gordon Low.
	April 14–15	The RMS Titanic crashed into an iceberg in the northern Atlantic Ocean, sinking the ship entirely less than three hours the initial collision, killing over 1,500 of the 2,224 passengers aboard.
	October 14	Former President Theodore Roosevelt was shot, but not killed, while campaigning for President as the candidate for the progressive Bull Moose Party.
	November 5	United States presidential election, 1912: New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson defeated incumbent President William Howard Taft, former President Theodore Roosevelt and union leader Eugene V. Debs.
1913	February 3	The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, establishing an income tax, was ratified.
	February 17	The Armory Show opened in New York City, introducing American and European modern art to the American public.
	May 31	The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, establishing direct election of Senators, was ratified.
	June 15	After mass civilian casualties in the Battle of Bud Bagsak, the Moro's surrendered their rebellion, ending the Philippine–American War.
	October 4	The Underwood Tariff was signed into law.
	December 1	Henry Ford developed the modern assembly line.
	December 23	The Federal Reserve Act was signed into law; establishing the Federal Reserve System.
1914	April 20	Ludlow massacre: The camps of striking coal miners were attacked by the Colorado National Guard; killing 25, including 11 children.
	July 28	World War I: Austria-Hungary invaded the Kingdom of Serbia after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand; triggering the start of World War I.
	May 9	The first Mother's Day was observed.
	September 26	The Federal Trade Commission was established.
	October 15	The Clayton Antitrust Act was signed into law.
1915	February 8	The controversial movie The Birth of a Nation opened in Los Angeles, becoming the largest-grossing movie at the time.
	May 7	The RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German torpedo, killing 1,198 passengers; partially contributing to the U.S.'s later involvement in World War I.
1916	November 7	Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to the United States Congress.
		The Adamson Railway Labor Act was signed into law.
	July 17	The Federal Farm Loan Act was signed into law.
	August 29	The Jones Act was signed into law.
	November 7	United States presidential election, 1916: President Woodrow Wilson was reelected to a second term, defeating Associate Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes of New York.
1917	March 31	The United States acquired the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25,000,000.
	March 1	The Zimmermann telegram was published, helping shift public opinion in favor of U.S. involvement in World War I.
	March 2	Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States of America.
	April 6	The United States declared war on Germany, beginning the U.S.'s involvement in World War I.
	June 15	The Espionage Act was signed into law.
	November 2	The Lansing–Ishii Agreement was signed.
	First Red Scare: The scare, marked by a widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism, began.
1918	January 8	World War I: President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, which assured citizens that the war was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe, was issued.
	May 16	The Sedition Act of 1918 was signed into law; forbidding the "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" against the United States government during a time of war.
1919		Red Summer: Heightened racial scrutinization of African-Americans during the Red Scare prompted mass racial riots among Whites in Bisbee, Arizona, Longview, Texas, Washington D.C., Chicago, Knoxville, Omaha, and Elaine, Arkansas.
		Inflation from the Post–World War I recession lead to the strike of 4 million workers; prompting the Boston Police Strike, Seattle General Strike, Steel Strike of 1919 and Coal Strike of 1919.
	June 28	World War I: The Treaty of Versailles ended the war.
	October 2	The Black Sox Scandal, involving the fixing of the 1919 World Series, occurred.
	October 28	President Woodrow Wilson's veto of the Volstead Act was overridden by the Senate, establishing the Eighteenth Amendment.
	November 19	The United States Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations, becoming the first time in U.S. history the Senate rejected a peace treaty.
1920	January	Depression of 1920–21: A deflationary recession began in the United States.
	January 2	Palmer Raids: Authorities arrested some three thousand suspected communists and anarchists in raids across the country.
	January 4	Republican congressman J. Hampton Moore resigned his seat following his election to become mayor of Philadelphia.
	January 17	The Eighteenth Amendment and Volstead Act came into force, forbidding the production, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages. See Prohibition in the United States.
	January 20	Oahu Sugar Strike of 1920: Filipino American sugar plantation workers in Hawaii went on strike for higher wages.
	January 26	The Supreme Court held in Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States that copies of illegally obtained evidence are also inadmissible as evidence.
	February 2	Secretary of the Treasury Carter Glass, a Democrat, was appointed to the Virginia Senate seat left vacant by the death of Thomas S. Martin.
	February 25	The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, which allowed for the leasing of public lands for the extraction of natural resources, was passed by the Congress.
	February 27	Ruby murders: Two store owners in Ruby, Arizona were murdered by Mexicans, probably followers of the revolutionary general Pancho Villa.
	February 29	Democratic representative Edward W. Saunders resigned following his election to the Virginia Supreme Court.
	March 1	The United States Railroad Administration returned control of the railroads to its constituent companies under the terms of the Esch–Cummins Act, which also officially encouraged consolidation of private railroads.
		Democratic senator John H. Bankhead of Alabama died.
	March 5	Democrat B. B. Comer was appointed to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Bankhead until a special election could be held.
	March 8	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Eisner v. Macomber that a pro rata stock dividend that does not increase one's ownership in a company cannot be considered taxable income under the Constitution.
	March 15	1920 North Dakota blizzard: A blizzard began in North Dakota which would kill some thirty people.
	March 18	1920 North Dakota blizzard: The blizzard ended.
	March 19	The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles.
	March 24	Republican representative William J. Browning of New Jersey's 1st congressional district died.
	March 28	1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak: An outbreak of tornadoes in the Midwest and South killed nearly four hundred people.
	March 30	The Death on the High Seas Act was signed into law, permitting damages to be collected by survivors in the event of the wrongful death in international waters of a member of the Merchant Marine.
	April 13	Congress passed the Phelan Act of 1920, authorizing the Federal Reserve Banks to offer discounts to member banks taking large loans.
	April 19	In a decision in Missouri v. Holland, the Supreme Court held that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which implemented the Migratory Bird Treaty forbidding the hunting of migratory birds in the United States and Canada, was constitutional under the Supremacy Clause.
		April 1920 tornado outbreak: An outbreak of tornadoes in the Southeast began which would claim over two hundred lives and injure over a thousand.
	April 20	Louisiana gubernatorial election, 1920: Democrat John M. Parker was elected governor of Louisiana with ninety-eight percent of the vote.
	April 21	April 1920 tornado outbreak: The outbreak ended.
		Anaconda Road massacre: Anaconda Copper security fired on striking mine workers in Butte, Montana, killing one and injuring twenty.
	April 25	Republican congressman Charles Archibald Nichols died.
	April 26	Great Debate: A debate was held in Washington, D.C. between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis concerning the existence of other galaxies outside the Milky Way.
	8 May	1920 Kentucky Derby: Paul Jones won a running of the Kentucky Derby.
	19 May	Battle of Matewan: Ten people including the mayor were killed in Matewan, West Virginia following tensions between the Stone Mountain Coal Company and the United Mine Workers (UMW).
	23 May	Secret Court of 1920: Harvard dean Chester Noyes Greenough convened a special tribunal to investigate homosexual activity at the college.
	31 May	1920 Indianapolis 500: Gaston Chevrolet won a running of the Indianapolis 500 in Speedway, Indiana.
	June 1	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Hawke v. Smith that a referendum in Ohio nullifying the Ohio General Assembly's ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment was unconstitutional and void.
	June 4	The National Defense Act of 1920, which established the Organized Reserve, now the Army Reserve, and elevated the National Guard and the Reserve alongside the Regular Army to comprise the Army of the United States, was passed by the Congress.
	June 5	Congress passed the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, prohibiting foreign vessels from transporting goods by sea between American ports.
		The Federal Power Act, which created the Federal Power Commission and transferred to it, from the states, the authority to issue licenses to construct dams, was passed by the Congress.
	June 7	Republican congressman Edmund Platt resigned his seat representing New York's 26th congressional district following his appointment to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
	June 8	1920 Republican National Convention: A national convention of the Republican Party convened in Chicago which would select dark horse compromise candidate Warren G. Harding, senator from Ohio, as its nominee for the presidency.
	June 15	1920 Duluth lynchings: Three black circus workers were lynched by a mob in Duluth, Minnesota following a false rape accusation.
	June 16	Fifteen hectares on Taboga Island were annexed to the Panama Canal Zone.
	June 28	1920 Democratic National Convention: A national convention of the Democratic Party convened in San Francisco which would select Ohio governor James M. Cox as its presidential nominee after forty-four ballots.
	July 4	Republican representative Dick Thompson Morgan died.
	August 1	Denver streetcar strike of 1920: The Denver local of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America, now the Amalgamated Transit Union, went on strike following a refusal of the Denver Tramway to raise their wages in compliance with an order of the National War Labor Board.
	August 5	Denver streetcar strike of 1920: The strike descended into violence following confrontations between the union and strikebreakers. Two people were killed and thirty wounded.
	August 7	Denver streetcar strike of 1920: Federal troops placed Denver under martial law, ending the violence and the strike.
	August 13	1920 U.S. Open: Ted Ray won the U.S. Open in Toledo, Ohio.
	August 18	The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote.
	August 21	1920 PGA Championship: Jock Hutchinson won the final of the golf tournament, held in Flossmoor, Illinois.
	August 30	1920 U.S. National Championships: A tennis tournament opened in Forest Hills, Queens.
	September 7	1920 Alabama coal strike: Some fifteen thousand UMW miners went on strike in Alabama.
	September 16	Wall Street bombing: A horse-drawn carriage bomb probably planted by followers of the anarchist Luigi Galleani in the financial district of New York City killed some forty people and injured over a hundred.
	September 23	1920 Louisiana hurricane: A hurricane dissipated over eastern Kansas after causing one death and over a million dollars in damage in Louisiana.
	October 12	1920 World Series: The Cleveland Indians defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in seven games.
	November 1	Democratic congressman James Thomas Heflin resigned his seat representing Alabama's 5th congressional district following his victory in a special election to replace Comer as senator from Alabama.
	November 2	United States elections, 1920: Harding decisively defeated Cox for the presidency, with sixty percent of the vote. The Republican Party strengthened its majorities in the House and Senate.
		Arizona gubernatorial election, 1920: Republican governor Thomas Edward Campbell of Arizona was reelected with fifty-four percent of the vote.
		Minnesota gubernatorial election, 1920: Republican J. A. O. Preus was elected Governor of Minnesota with fifty-three percent of the vote.
		Missouri gubernatorial election, 1920: Republican Arthur M. Hyde was elected governor of Missouri with fifty-four percent of the vote.
		Montana gubernatorial election, 1920: Republican Joseph M. Dixon was elected governor of Montana with sixty percent of the vote.
		South Carolina gubernatorial election, 1920: Incumbent Democratic governor Robert Archer Cooper of South Carolina was reelected without opposition.
		Vermont gubernatorial election, 1920: Republican James Hartness was elected Governor of Vermont with seventy-eight percent of the vote.
		West Virginia gubernatorial election, 1920: Republican Ephraim F. Morgan was elected governor of West Virginia with forty-seven percent of the vote.
	November 19	Republican congressman Mahlon Morris Garland died.
	December 7	1920 State of the Union Address: Wilson addressed a joint session of the Congress.
December 13	In a decision in United States v. Wheeler (1920), the Supreme Court held that the Constitution did not grant the federal government the power to punish a private citizen's violation of another's freedom of movement.
December 30	Republican John MacCrate resigned his seat representing New York's 3rd congressional district in the House following his election to the New York Supreme Court.
1921	May 19	The Emergency Quota Act was signed into law.
	May 31 – June 1	The Tulsa Race riot occurred; resulting in the deaths of up to 300 African-Americans and leaving more than 8,000 homeless.
	November 12	The first meeting of the Washington Disarmament Conference of 1921 was held.
1922	September 21	The Fordney–McCumber Tariff was signed into law.
1923	August 2	President Warren G. Harding died of a heart attack at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
	August 3	Vice President Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as President, the day following the death of President Harding.
	November 22	Teapot Dome scandal: Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall resigned as a result of the scandal.
	December 10	The Equal Rights Amendment, written by women's suffragist leader Alice Paul, was first introduced in the Senate.
1924	May 10	J. Edgar Hoover was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation.
	May 26	The Immigration Act Basic Law was signed into law.
	November 4	United States presidential election, 1924: President Calvin Coolidge defeated former Solicitor General John W. Davis and Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette.
1925	July 21	Scopes Trial: High school teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, for teaching human evolution in the classroom.
	November 4	Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected Governor of Wyoming, becoming the first woman elected governor of a U.S. State.
	November 28	WSM first broadcast the Grand Ole Opry.
1926	November 15	The broadcast network NBC was founded.
1927	January 27	The radio network Columbia Broadcasting System (later CBS) was founded.
	May 18	Bath School disaster: Andrew Kehoe detonated over 500 pounds of dynamite and incendiary pyrotol which he planted in an elementary school in Bath Township, Michigan, where he later detonated the first ever car bomb in the U.S. in a suicide attack at the scene of the bombing; killing a total of 44 people and being the deadliest mass murder at a school in U.S. history.
	May 21	Charles Lindbergh made the first trans-Atlantic flight.
	August 23	Sacco and Vanzetti were executed.
	October 6	The Jazz Singer, the first motion picture with sound, was released.
1928	August 27	The Kellogg–Briand Pact was signed.
	November 6	United States presidential election, 1928: U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover was elected President, defeating New York Governor Al Smith.
	November 18	Disney's animated feature Steamboat Willie, featuring Mickey Mouse, opened.
1929	February 14	The St. Valentine's Day Massacre became one of the most infamous slaying between rival gangs of the Prohibition era; resulting in the deaths of 7.
	October 29	Wall Street Crash of 1929: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted a record 68 points.
	November 7	The Museum of Modern Art opened to the public in New York City.
	February 20	American Samoa officially became a United States territory.
1930	June 17	The Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act was signed into law.
1931	May 1	The Empire State Building opened in New York City.
1932	January 7	The Stimson Doctrine was published.
	January 22	The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was established.
	March 23	The Norris–La Guardia Act was signed into law.
	May	The Bonus Army protests began in Washington, D.C.
	May 20	Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
	November 8	United States presidential election, 1932: New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected President, defeating incumbent Herbert Hoover.
1933	January 23	The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution, moving the beginning and end of the terms of elected federal officials to January 20, was ratified.
	February 15	Giuseppe Zangara assassinated Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak in an attempt on President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt's life.
	March 4	President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Frances Perkins United States Secretary of Labor, becoming the first woman to hold a cabinet-level position.
		New Deal: The Agricultural Adjustment Act, Civil Works Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, Farm Credit Administration, Home Owners Loan Corporation, Tennessee Valley Authority, Public Works Administration, National Industrial Recovery Act were all established or brought into force.
	December 5	The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, ending prohibition, was ratified.
1934		Dust Bowl: The Dust Bowl, characterized by severe drought and heat waves in the Great Plains, began.
	March 24	The Tydings–McDuffie Act was signed into law, establishing the Philippine Commonwealth.
	June 6	The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was established.
	June 12	The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act was signed into law.
	June 16	The Glass–Steagall Act was signed into law.
	June 18	The Indian Reorganization Act was signed into law.
	June 22	John Dillinger was killed.
	June 28	The Federal Housing Administration was established.
1935	March 22	The FBI was established, with J. Edgar Hoover as its first director.
	April 8	The Works Progress Administration was established.
	May 14	The Social Security Act was signed into law; establishing the Social Security Administration.
	May 27	Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States: The Supreme Court ruled that the National Industrial Recovery Act, a central piece of President Roosevelt's New Deal program, was unconstitutional.
	July 5	The National Labor Relations Act was signed into law.
	August 9	The Motor Carrier Act was signed into law.
	August 30	The Revenue Act of 1935 was signed into law.
	August 31	The Neutrality Act of 1935 was signed into law.
	September 10	Louisiana Senator Huey Long was assassinated.
	November 9	The Congress of Industrial Organizations was founded.
1936	January 6	United States v. Butler: The Supreme Court ruled that the processing taxes instituted under the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act were unconstitutional.
	March 25	The Second London Naval Treaty was signed.
	June 19	The Robinson-Patman Act was signed into law.
	November 3	United States presidential election, 1936: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was reelected to a second term, defeating Kansas Governor Alf Landon.
	December 30	The Flint Sit-Down Strike began.
1937	May 1	The Neutrality Act of 1937 was signed into law.
	May 6	Hindenburg disaster: The LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire, crashing at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey after departing from Frankfurt, Germany; killing thirty-five passengers and one ground crewman.
	May 27	The Golden Gate Bridge opened in San Francisco.
	December 12	Panay incident: A Japanese attack was made on the United States Navy gunboat USS Panay while it was anchored in the Yangtze River outside of Nanjing; killing three Americans.
1938	June 25	The Fair Labor Standards Act was signed into law; establishing a federal minimum wage.
	October 30	Orson Welles performed a broadcast of The War of the Worlds.
1939	February 4	Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became the first full-length animated film.
	August 2	The Hatch Act, aimed at corrupt political practices, was signed into law, preventing federal civil servants from campaigning.
	September 1	Invasion of Poland: Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
	September 21	In response to the Poland Campaign, President Roosevelt requested a cash and carry policy to replace the Neutrality Acts.
1940	June 29	The Smith Act was signed into law.
		The cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry debuted.
	July 20	Billboard publishes its first music popularity chart.
	September 16	The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, reinstating the U.S. military draft, was signed into law.
	November 5	U.S. presidential election, 1940: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was reelected to a third term, defeating corporate lawyer Wendell Willkie of Indiana.
1941	February 23	American Nuclear chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, with fellow U.C. Berkeley researchers, discovered the chemical element plutonium.
	March 11	World War II: Lend-Lease, which supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material, began.
	June 25	President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, prohibiting racial discrimination in the defense industry.
	August 14	World War II: The Atlantic Charter was drafted by Britain and the United States to serve as a blueprint for the postwar world.
	December 7	Attack on Pearl Harbor: The Empire of Japan deliberately attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Sinking six U.S. ships, including the USS Arizona, and destroying 188 aircraft, the attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in the deaths of 2,402 American citizens and leaving 1,178 wounded.
	December 8	The United States declares war on the Empire of Japan, beginning the U.S. entry into World War II.
	December 11	The United States declares war on Germany and Italy, after both nations declared war with United States.
1942		The Congress of Racial Equality was established.
	January 20	The Office of Price Administration was established.
	February 9	Automobile production in the United States for private consumers is halted by the War Production Board.
	February 19	Japanese American internment: Internment and seizure of property began, per Executive Order 9066 issued by President Roosevelt.
	April 9	The U.S. surrenders to Japan in the Battle of Bataan, beginning the three-year occupation of the Commonwealth of the Philippines by Japanese forces.
	April 11	President Roosevelt signed Executive order 8734; establishing the Office of Price Administration.
	April 18	Pacific Theater of Operations: The Doolittle Raid begins the first U.S. bombing of Japanese archipelago.
	June 3	The Aleutian Islands Campaign begins the Japanese occupation of Alaska Territory.
	June 4–7	The Battle of Midway was fought.
	August 7	The Guadalcanal Campaign begins in the Solomon Islands.
	August 13	The Manhattan Project, leading to the development of the first atomic bomb, began.
	October 21	The Revenue Act of 1942 was signed into law.
	November 28	The Cocoanut Grove fire, the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, killed 492 people in Boston.
1943	January 14–24	The Casablanca Conference was held.
	March 31	The Broadway musical Oklahoma! opened.
	June 20–22	The Detroit Race Riot occurred; resulting in the deaths of 34 Whites and African-Americans and leaving 670 injured.
	September 8	Armistice of Cassibile: General Dwight Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allied Powers; with Italy later declaring war on Germany one month later.
	November 22–26	The Cairo Conference was held.
	November 28	The Tehran Conference was held between the "Big Three" Allied leaders of World War II.
1944	June 6	Normandy Landings (D-Day): The Invasion of Normandy, one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history, began in the Allied Powers broader Operation Overlord; leading to the Liberation of Paris.
	June 22	The G.I. Bill was signed into law.
	July 1–22	United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference: Delegates from 44 nations met to discuss a new post-WWII monetary policy.
	August 21	The Dumbarton Oaks Conference began, starting the first talks between world leaders on the establishment of the United Nations.
	November 7	U.S. presidential election, 1944: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was reelected to a fourth term, defeating New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey.
	December 16	The Battle of the Bulge, Germany's final major offensive of World War II, began; being the deadliest military battle for the United States during World War II.
1945	January 1	Operation Bodenplatte: The German Luftwaffe destroyed a number of Allied aircraft across the Low Countries, at a cost of some two hundred pilots killed or captured.
		Chenogne massacre: American troops killed some sixty soldiers of the German Wehrmacht held as prisoners of war near Chenogne, Belgium.
		1945 Rose Bowl: The USC Trojans defeated the Tennessee Volunteers in a college football bowl game in Pasadena, California.
		1945 Cotton Bowl Classic: The Oklahoma A&M Cowboys defeated the TCU Horned Frogs in a college football bowl game in Dallas.
		The 6th Photographic Squadron was inactivated.
		1945 Orange Bowl: The Tulsa Golden Hurricane defeated the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in a college football bowl game in Miami.
		1945 Sugar Bowl: The Duke Blue Devils defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide in a college football bowl game in New Orleans.
		1945 Sun Bowl: The Southwestern Pirates decisively defeated the Mexico Pumas in a college football bowl game held in El Paso, Texas.
	January 2	Republican congressman William I. Troutman of Pennsylvania's at-large congressional district resigned.
	January 6	Invasion of Lingayen Gulf: American and Australian warships began bombarding Japanese positions in the Lingayen Gulf.
	January 9	Battle of Luzon: The Sixth Army landed at the Lingayen Gulf.
		Democratic senator Monrad Wallgren of Washington resigned following his election as governor.
	January 15	Democratic congressman James F. O'Connor of Montana's 2nd congressional district died.
	January 16	Democratic senator Francis T. Maloney of Connecticut died.
	January 17	Vice president-elect Harry S. Truman, a Democrat, resigned his Senate seat representing Missouri.
	January 18	Democrat Frank P. Briggs was appointed to fill Truman's vacant Senate seat from Missouri.
	January 20	Fourth inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt: Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn into his fourth term as president in Washington, D.C.
		Colmar Pocket: French forces attacked the south flank of the German 19th Army, then in possession of territory around Colmar in Alsace.
	January 21	Operation Nordwind: American forces withdrew to the south bank of the Moder in the face of a German advance.
	January 30	Raid at Cabanatuan: American and Philippine forces liberated some six hundred civilians and Allied prisoners of war from a Japanese camp near Cabanatuan.
		Battle of Kesternich: American forces entered the German-held village of Kesternich, in modern Simmerath.
	January 31	Battle of Bataan: American forces advanced on a Japanese regiment in a pass of the Zambales Mountains.
	February 1	Battle of Kesternich: The last German defenders were expelled from Kesternich.
	February 3	Battle of Manila: The 1st Cavalry Division entered the northern outskirts of Manila.
	February 4	Yalta Conference: Franklin D. Roosevelt, British prime minister Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union met near Yalta to discuss the reorganization of Europe after the war.
	February 6	The Curecanti National Recreation Area was established.
	February 9	Colmar Pocket: The German army retreated across the Rhine.
	February 10	Operation Kita: Six Japanese ships left Singapore for Japan under British and American harassment.
	February 11	Yalta Conference: The conference ended. The three parties agreed to the demilitarization of Germany and its division into American, British, Soviet and French occupation zones, and the establishment of a Polish government with the pro-Soviet Polish Committee of National Liberation at its core.
	February 13	Bombing of Dresden in World War II: British bombers launched the first of four firebombing raids on Dresden.
	February 15	Republican Thomas C. Hart was appointed to the Senate seat representing Connecticut left vacant by Maloney's death.
		Democrat Dave E. Satterfield, Jr., representative from Virginia's 3rd congressional district, resigned.
	February 16	Battle of Corregidor: American paratroopers landed on the Japanese-held island of Corregidor.
	February 19	Battle of Iwo Jima: The V Amphibious Corps landed on Japanese-occupied Iwo Jima.
	February 20	Operation Kita: The Japanese ships arrived safely in Kure, Hiroshima.
	February 21	Battle of Bataan (1945): Bataan was fully conquered by American and Philippine forces.
		Battle of Baguio: American and Philippine forces began an advance on Baguio.
		Battle of Monte Castello: American and Brazilian forces captured a German stronghold in the northern Apennine Mountains.
	February 23	Raid at Los Baños: American and Philippine forces raided a Japanese prison camp at Los Baños, Laguna, rescuing some two thousand Allied and civilian prisoners.
	February 24	1945 Southern Conference Men's Basketball Tournament: The University of North Carolina defeated Duke University in the final of the Southern Conference men's basketball tournament.
	February 26	Battle of Corregidor (1945): Corregidor was declared secured
	March 1	Operation Lumberjack: American forces attacked German positions in an advance on the Rhine.
	March 3	Battle of Manila (1945): The last of Manila fell to American and Philippine forces.
		Senator John Moses, Democrat of North Dakota, died during open heart surgery.
	March 6	Democrat J. Vaughan Gary was seated in the House following a special election to fill the seat representing Virginia's 3rd congressional district, vacant due to Satterfield's resignation.
	March 7	Battle of Remagen: American forces entered Remagen and captured the Ludendorff Bridge.
	March 9	Granville raid: German forces damaged several Allied ships, killed twenty sailors, and stole a coal collier in Granville, Manche.
		Congress passed the McCarran–Ferguson Act. The act declares that federal laws should not be taken to regulate the insurance industry, unless specifically so stated, if a state law already exists.
	March 10	Battle of Mindanao: The Eighth Army began preparations for the invasion of Mindanao.
	March 12	Santa Fe riot: Some three hundred Japanese nationals interned at a camp near Santa Fe, New Mexico rioted following the removal of three of their number to another camp.
		Republican Milton Young was appointed to fill the Senate seat representing North Dakota left vacant by Moses's death.
	March 15	17th Academy Awards: An awards ceremony for American cinema was held in Los Angeles.
		Operation Undertone: French and American forces launched an assault against the German army across a front stretching from Saarbrücken to Haguenau.
	March 16	Bombing of Kobe in World War II: American forces firebombed Kobe, killing some nine thousand civilians.
	March 18	Battle of the Visayas: The 185th Infantry Regiment landed at Tigbauan, Iloilo in the Japanese-occupied Visayas.
	March 22	Western Allied invasion of Germany: The 5th Infantry Division crossed the Rhine at Nierstein.
		Republican congressman James V. Heidinger of Illinois's 24th congressional district died.
	March 23	Operation Plunder: British and American forces crossed the Rhine near the confluence with the Lippe.
	March 24	Operation Varsity: The United States and United Kingdom dropped some twenty thousand paratroopers on the east side of the Rhine.
		Operation Undertone: The bulk of German forces retreated across the Rhine and destroyed the last remaining bridge, at Germersheim.
	March 26	Battle of Iwo Jima: Iwo Jima was declared secure.
		Battle for Cebu City: American and Philippine forces landed on Cebu.
		Battle of Frankfurt: American forces reached the outskirts of Frankfurt.
		The Supreme Court held in a decision in United States v. Willow River Power Co. that the Fifth Amendment only requires just compensation when private property is taken for public use, and not more generally when government action causes an economic loss.
March 27	1945 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament: Oklahoma A&M beat New York University in the final of a college basketball tournament.
March 28	Battle for Cebu City: Allied forces captured Cebu City.
March 29	Battle of Frankfurt: American forces conquered Frankfurt.
April 1	Battle of Okinawa: American forces landed on the Japanese island of Okinawa.
	Battle of Kassel: The 80th Division advanced on the German-held city of Kassel from the south.
April 3	Los Angeles mayoral election, 1945: Republican Fletcher Bowron was reelected mayor of Los Angeles with fifty-four percent of the vote.
April 4	Battle of Buchhof and Stein am Kocher: German and American forces met in battle between the Neckar and the Kocher.
	Battle of Kassel (1945): The defenders of the city surrendered.
April 5	Freeman Field Mutiny: Some forty black airmen were arrested after entering the white officers' club at Freeman Army Airfield.
April 6	Spring 1945 offensive in Italy: An Allied artillery bombardment began against German positions across the Senio.
	Battle of West Hunan: Japanese forces invaded western Hunan.
April 7	Operation Ten-Go: A naval battle took place south of Kyushu in which eight Japanese ships were destroyed or severely damaged and some four thousand sailors killed, largely due to the complete air superiority of the United States.
April 8	1945 NFL Draft: An NFL draft was held in New York City.
April 9	Battle of Bologna: Allied forces advanced on the German-held city of Bologna.
April 11	Operation Copper: Seven of eight commandos of the Allied Z Special Unit were captured and executed following a failed reconnaissance of an island in New Guinea.
April 12	Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia.
	First inauguration of Harry S. Truman: Truman was sworn in as president in Washington, D.C.
April 15	Operation Teardrop: An American surface ship made radar contact in the northern Atlantic Ocean with a German U-boat bound for North America
April 16	Battle of Nuremberg: The Seventh Army began an assault on Nuremberg.
April 19	Operation Herring: The Army Air Forces dropped some two hundred Italian resistance paratroopers into German-held areas in the valley of the Po.
April 20	Battle of Nuremberg (1945): The last German resistance in Nuremberg surrendered to American forces.
April 21	Battle of Bologna: Allied forces captured Bologna.
April 22	1945 Stanley Cup Finals: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals, in Detroit.
April 23	Operation Herring: The operation ended with some two thousand Germans captured or killed.
	Action of 23 April 1945: An American submarine sank a German submarine in the Java Sea.
	The Supreme Court in a decision in Cramer v. United States overturned the treason conviction of the plaintiff, holding that the prosecution had not proved that he had committed actions meeting the constitutional definition of the crime.
April 24	Battle of Baguio (1945): American and Philippine forces entered Baguio.
April 25	United Nations Conference on International Organization: A convention attended by delegates from fifty countries opened in San Francisco.
April 26	Battle of Collecchio: Brazilian forces encountered German and Italian forces attempting to flee north across the Po at Fornovo di Taro.
April 27	Battle of Davao: American forces landed at Davao Gulf.
April 28	Death of Benito Mussolini: Duce Benito Mussolini of the Italian Social Republic was executed in Giulino by Walter Audisio of the Italian resistance movement.
April 29	Battle of Collecchio: Some ten thousand German and Italian troops surrendered to Brazil.
April 30	Death of Adolf Hitler: German Führer Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot in Berlin.
2 May	Battle of Berlin: Soviet and Polish forces captured the German capital Berlin.
5 May	1945 Kentucky Derby: Hoop Jr. won a running of the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky.
	Battle for Castle Itter: American troops and soldiers of the German Army defended a castle from the Waffen-SS in Itter.
	Battle of Point Judith: American surface ships sank a German U-boat off Point Judith, Rhode Island.
7 May	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Jewell Ridge Coal Corp. v. United Mine Workers of America that the underground travel time of coal miners was compensable work time under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
	The Supreme Court in Screws v. United States held a conviction under the civil rights sections of Title 18 of the United States Code requires proof of the defendant's specific intent to deprive the victim of a federal right.
8 May	End of World War II in Europe: Alfred Jodl of the German Oberkommando der Wehrmacht signed the German Instrument of Surrender in Berlin.
11 May	Battle of Slivice: German forces led by gruppenführer Carl Friedrich von Pückler-Burghauss were placed under bombardment by American and Soviet forces in Slivice, near Čimelice.
21 May	The Supreme Court in a decision in Sinclair & Carroll Co. v. Interchemical Corp. held a patent invalid for lack of inventiveness.
28 May	Battle of the Visayas: Major combat operations were declared finished. Philippine forces were tasked with eliminating the last Japanese resistance in the Visayas.
	Project Hula: A convoy of American ships given over to the Soviet Union departed Cold Bay, Alaska.
June 4	The Office of Civilian Defense, responsible for coordinating state and federal emergency response, was dissolved by executive order.
June 5	Republican Wesley A. D'Ewart was seated in the House following a special election to O'Connor's vacant seat representing Montana's 2nd congressional district.
June 7	Battle of West Hunan: Chinese forces with American air support forced the retreat of Japanese forces from western Hunan.
June 10	Battle of Davao: Japanese forces withdrew from Davao City.
	Battle of Labuan: The Australian 24th Brigade landed on Labuan.
	Battle of North Borneo: The Australian 2/15th and 2/17th battalions landed on the mainland of North Borneo.
June 11	1945 Florida State Road renumbering: Florida's state roads were renumbered.
	The Supreme Court held in a decision in In re Summers that the Illinois state bar association, in denying the admission of the petitioner, a conscientious objector, had not violated his First or Fourteenth Amendment rights.
June 14	Battle of Bessang Pass: The United States Army Forces in the Philippines - Northern Luzon captured Cervantes, Ilocos Sur
June 18	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Southern Pacific Co. v. Arizona that Arizona's Train Limit Law of 1912 placed an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce.
	The Supreme Court reached a decision in Associated Press v. United States in which it held that the Associated Press, an association of news media organizations, had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by forbidding its member organizations from selling stories to nonmembers, and that it was not exempt from the Act under the First Amendment.
	In a decision in Guaranty Trust Co. v. York, the Supreme Court held that a state law, specifically a state statute of limitations, must be followed by a federal court where it substantially affects the outcome of the case.
June 21	Battle of Okinawa: The last Japanese resistance on Okinawa was defeated. The battle left some twenty thousand American soldiers and as many as one hundred thousand Japanese soldiers and another hundred thousand civilians dead.
	Battle of Labuan: Australian and American forces wiped out the last Japanese resistance on Labuan.
June 23	Democratic senator James G. Scrugham of Nevada died.
June 26	United Nations Conference on International Organization: The delegates to the conference signed the United Nations Charter. The charter establishes the United Nations (UN), an intergovernmental organization with a General Assembly of all member states and a Security Council responsible for authorizing sanctions and military action.
June 29	The War Food Administration, responsible for the production and distribution of food during wartime, was abolished by executive order.
June 30	The 78th Flying Training Wing was disbanded.
	Democratic congressman Clinton Presba Anderson of New Mexico's at-large congressional district resigned his seat following his appointment as Secretary of Agriculture.
July 1	Battle of Balikpapan: The Australian 7th Division landed a few miles north of Balikpapan.
July 8	Utah prisoner of war massacre: An American soldier murdered nine German prisoners of war at a camp in Salina, Utah.
July 9	Tillamook Burn: A fire started in the Northern Oregon Coast Range near the Salmonberry River.
July 10	Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II: Bombers of the Fast Carrier Task Force began bombing military targets around Tokyo.
July 12	Eastern Air Lines Flight 45: A commercial flight collided with a bomber over Lamar, South Carolina, resulting in the crash of both aircraft and one civilian and two military fatalities.
July 15	1945 PGA Championship: Byron Nelson won a golf tournament held in Kettering, Ohio.
July 16	Trinity: The Army conducted a test detonation of a nuclear weapon in the Jornada del Muerto.
July 17	Potsdam Conference: A conference opened in Potsdam with Truman, Churchill and Stalin as attendees.
July 18	Attack on Yokosuka: American and British forces bombed Yokosuka, Kanagawa, destroying several Japanese ships.
July 22	Battle of Sagami Bay: An American destroyer squadron sank a Japanese freighter off the tip of the Bōsō Peninsula.
July 24	Action of 24 July 1945: A Japanese kaiten sank an American destroyer escort off Luzon, killing over a hundred sailors.
	Bombing of Kure: The Third Fleet bombed the harbor at Kure, Hiroshima, destroying seven Japanese ships including an aircraft carrier.
July 25	Democrat Edward P. Carville of Nevada was appointed to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Scrugham's death.
July 26	Potsdam Conference: Truman, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek of China issued the Potsdam Declaration outlining the terms of Japan's surrender.
July 28	Bombing of Aomori in World War II: United States forces firebombed the city of Aomori, Aomori, killing some two thousand civilians.
	B-25 Empire State Building crash: A bomber crashed into the Empire State Building in New York City, killing three crewmembers and eleven in the building.
July 31	Congress passed a law chartering the Export–Import Bank, which provides credit to foreign purchasers of American goods, as an independent agency.
August 1	Potsdam Conference: Truman, Stalin and British prime minister Clement Attlee signed the Potsdam Agreement, dissolving the European Advisory Commission and establishing the Allied Control Council to govern Germany with a view to establishing a single, disarmed, democratic German state.
August 6	Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing some ten thousand soldiers and thirty thousand civilians. More would die in the following months from burns and radiation sickness.
	Republican Senator Hiram Johnson of California died.
August 9	Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing some twenty thousand civilians.
	Michigan train wreck: A train collision in Michigan City, North Dakota killed some thirty people.
August 15	Jewel Voice Broadcast: Emperor Hirohito of Japan read a broadcast announcing that Japan would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration.
	Battle of Mindanao: The last Japanese resistance on Mindanao was wiped out.
August 16	The Soviet Union accepted an American proposal to divide Korea into two zones of occupation divided at the 38th parallel north.
August 17	President José P. Laurel of the Second Philippine Republic in exile in Tokyo declared the dissolution of his government.
August 26	Republican William F. Knowland of California was appointed to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Hiram Johnson's death.
August 27	1945 Texas hurricane: A hurricane made landfall over Port Aransas, Texas which would kill three people before dissipating two days later.
August 30	Republican congressman D. Lane Powers resigned his seat representing New Jersey's 4th congressional district.
September 1	USA vs. USSR radio chess match 1945: A chess tournament between the United States and the Soviet Union began which would see the latter win by a margin of eleven games.
September 2	Surrender of Japan: Japan and nine other states signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender in Tokyo Bay, calling for the return of all Allied prisoners of war and subordinating the authority of the emperor and the Japanese government to the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.
September 4	The Japanese garrison on Wake Island surrendered to the United States.
September 8	Miss America 1945: Bess Myerson won a Miss America pageant held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
	The 855th Bombardment Squadron was inactivated.
September 15	1945 Homestead hurricane: A hurricane made landfall at Key Largo, Florida which would kill four people in the United States.
September 17	The United States and the Soviet Union signed the Wanfried agreement, transferring territory between the American and Soviet occupation zones so that the Bebra–Göttingen railway did not cut through Soviet occupied territory.
September 18	1945 Japan–Washington flight: Three specially modified aircraft left Hokkaido for Washington, D.C.
September 20	Truman issued an executive order dissolving the Office of Strategic Services effective October 1.
	1945 Negro World Series: The Cleveland Buckeyes defeated the Washington Homestead Grays in four games, the fourth held in Philadelphia.
September 30	Republican senator Harold Hitz Burton of Ohio resigned his seat following his appointment as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.
October 5	Hollywood Black Friday: Forty people were injured in a violent confrontation between striking set directors and strikebreakers in Burbank, California.
	National Airlines Flight 16: A commercial flight from Miami to Lakeland, Florida crashed, killing two passengers.
October 8	Democrat James W. Huffman was appointed to represent Ohio in the Senate, filling Burton's vacancy.
October 10	1945 World Series: The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs in seven games, the last in Chicago.
October 16	A conference in Quebec City of forty-four states including the United States established the Food and Agriculture Organization, dedicated to addressing hunger.
November 1	Democratic senator Happy Chandler of Kentucky resigned his seat.
November 5	The Supreme Court reached a decision in United States v. Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co. in which it held that the Interstate Commerce Commission had the authority to grant licenses to common carriers according to its own judgment of what constitutes sufficient carrying capacity.
November 6	Pittsburgh mayoral election, 1945: Democrat David L. Lawrence was elected mayor of Pittsburgh with fifty-three percent of the vote.
	Virginia gubernatorial election, 1945: Democratic lieutenant governor William M. Tuck of Virginia was elected governor with sixty-seven percent of the vote.
	Republicans Roy Clippinger and Frank A. Mathews, Jr. were seated in the House following special elections to the seats left vacant by Heidinger and Powers, respectively.
November 7	The 306th Fighter Wing was inactivated.
November 10	Republican senator John W. Thomas of Idaho died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Washington, D.C.
November 12	Republican congressman James W. Mott of Oregon's 1st congressional district died.
November 17	Democrat Charles C. Gossett was appointed to the Senate seat representing Idaho left vacant by Thomas's death.
November 19	Republican William A. Stanfill was appointed to represent Kentucky in the Senate, filling Chandler's vacancy.
November 21	United Auto Workers (UAW) strike of 1945-46: General Motors employees represented by the United Automobile Workers went on strike.
November 24	1945 NCAA Cross Country Championships: Fred Feiler of Drake University and the Drake University team won the individual and team portions of a cross country event held in East Lansing, Michigan.
December 3	The Supreme Court reached a decision in International Shoe Co. v. Washington which substantially increased the authority of states to regulate and tax businesses conducting interstate commerce.
December 5	Flight 19: Five torpedo bombers disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle.
December 16	1945 NFL Championship Game: The Cleveland Rams defeated the Washington Redskins in a football championship game in Cleveland.
December 20	The United Nations Participation Act was signed into law, establishing processes for United States participation in the UN.
December 24	Sodder children disappearance: A fire destroyed the home of George Sodder in Fayetteville, West Virginia. Four of the nine children living in the home were rescued; the bodies of the other five were not found.
December 25	Democratic congressman Joseph Wilson Ervin of North Carolina's 10th congressional district committed suicide by inhaling gas from a kitchen stove.
December 28	The War Brides Act was signed into law, allowing spouses and natural and adoptive children of members of the Armed Forces to enter the United States as non-quota immigrants not subject to health standards.
December 30	The 74th Flying Training Wing was disbanded.
	Democratic congressman Samuel Dickstein (congressman) resigned his seat representing New York's 19th congressional district.
December 31	The National War Labor Board, established to mediate disputes between workers and employers, was dissolved by executive order.
	Democratic congressmen Clifton A. Woodrum, of Virginia's 6th congressional district, and Robert Ramspeck, of Georgia's 5th, resigned their seats.
1946		Automobile production in the United States for private consumers resumed.
	February 20	The Employment Act was signed into law; establishing the Council of Economic Advisers.
	July 4	The Philippines regained independence from the United States.
	July 14	Benjamin Spock's The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care was published.
	August 1	The United States Atomic Energy Act of 1946 was signed into law; establishing the United States Atomic Energy Commission.
	December 5	President Truman signed Executive Order 9808; establishing the President's Committee on Civil Rights.
1947	March 12	The Truman Doctrine was declared, establishing "the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."
	March 21	President Truman signed executive order 9835; establishing the Federal Employee Loyalty Program to search out the "infiltration of disloyal persons" in the U.S. Government.
	April 15	Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers broke the color line in Major League Baseball.
	June 5	The Marshall Plan was announced by U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall.
	June 23	The Taft Hartley Act was enacted, with the House and Senate overriding President Truman's veto of the bill.
	July 7	The Roswell UFO incident occurred near Roswell, New Mexico.
	July 18	The Presidential Succession Act was signed into law.
	July 26	The National Security Act of 1947 was signed into law, establishing the Central Intelligence Agency.
	October 30	The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was signed in Geneva.
1948	April 30	The Charter of the Organization of American States was adopted.
	June 8	Texaco Star Theater, the first top-rated United States network television show, debuted on television.
	June 24	The Berlin Blockade, the first major crisis of the Cold War, took place.
		The Selective Service Act of 1948 was signed into law.
	July 26	President Truman signed Executive Order 9981, leading to the desegregating the United States Armed Forces.
	November 2	U.S. presidential election, 1948: President Harry S. Truman was reelected to a second term, defeating New York Governor and 1944 Presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey, and South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, in what is regarded as one of the biggest upsets in American political history.
	November 26	The Polaroid camera was first offered for sale.
1949	January 5	In the 1949 State of the Union Address, President Truman proposed the unsuccessful Fair Deal; his administration's agenda for economic and domestic policy.
		Allied-occupied Germany was divided into East and West Germany.
	April 4	North Atlantic Treaty: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded.
	April 13	The Nuremberg Trials ended, with the convictions of 24 major Nazi political and military leaders, among others.
	August 10	The National Security Amendments of 1949 was signed into law by President Truman, renaming the Department of War the Department of Defense.
	August 29	First Lightning: The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb.
1950		Second Red Scare: McCarthyism, the term to describe "the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially of pro-Communist activity" of Senator Joseph McCarthy, began after heightened fears of Communist influence in America.
	January 21	A grand jury found former State Department official and President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Alger Hiss guilty on two counts of perjury in connection with charges that he was a Soviet spy.
	February 9	Senator McCarthy came to national prominence after claiming to have a list of 205 State Department employees who were members of the Communist Party and "helping to shape [the U.S.'s] foreign policy."
	June 25	Korean War: The North Korean military began the Communist lead invasion of South Korea.
	June 27	President Truman ordered U.S. air and naval support to aid South Korea against the Northern lead invasion; prompting the beginning of the U.S. involvement in the Korean War.
	September 22	The McCarran Internal Security Act was enacted, with the House and Senate overriding President Truman's veto of the bill.
	October 2	The comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, was first published.
	November 1	Truman assassination attempt: Two Puerto Rican nationals attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman while he stayed at Blair House.
1951	February 27	The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, establishing term limits for President, was ratified.
	April 11	President Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his commands after criticizing the limited war efforts of the Truman administration, and starting unauthorized talks with China in the Korean war.
	September 1	The ANZUS Treaty was signed.
	September 8	The Japanese Peace Treaty Conference was held San Francisco.
	October 10	The Mutual Security Act was signed into law.
1952	June 27	The McCarran–Walter Act was enacted, with the House and Senate overriding President Truman's veto of the bill.
	November 4	United States presidential election, 1952: Five-Star General and former Chief of Staff of the United States Army Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected President, defeating Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II.
1953	April 25	Molecular biologists James Watson and Francis Crick published their paper on the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA.
	June 19	Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on conspiracy to commit espionage after they were found guilty of giving U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
	July 19	The Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, ending the Korean War.
	August 15	Operation Ajax: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi returned to power after the CIA conducted a coup d'état in Iran.
1954	January 1	Tournament of Roses Parade: The parade was the first national color television broadcast.
	April 26 – July 20	Geneva Conference: A conference was held where the United States attempted to find a way to unify Korea and restore peace in Indochina.
	May 17	Brown v. Board of Education: The Supreme Court declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students, and denying black children equal educational opportunities, were unconstitutional.
	June 9	Army-McCarthy hearings: Senator McCarthy was nationally discredited after failing to provide credible evidence supporting accusations of communist activity in the U.S. government amid the two months of televised hearings.
	June 18–27	Operation PBSUCCESS: The CIA organized the overthrow of Guatemala's democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.
	September 8	The United States became a member of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
	November 23	The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at an all-time high of 382.74, the first time it closed above its peak set before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
	December 2	The United States and the Republic of China signed the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, amid the First Taiwan Strait Crisis.
	December 23	The first successful kidney transplant on a human was performed in Boston.
1955		The Civil Rights Movement began.
	April 12	The announcement that the polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk was found to be "safe, effective and potent" was made by the University of Michigan.
	April 15	Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's fast food restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.
	May 14	The Warsaw Pact was signed, establishing a mutual defense arrangement subscribed to by eight Communist states in Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union.
	July 17	Disneyland opened at Anaheim, California.
	August 28	Emmett Till was kidnapped, beaten and murdered in Money, Mississippi after reportedly flirting with a white woman; with the pictures of his open casket funeral, and the acquittal of his captors, the public reaction of Till's death serves as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement.
	September 30	Actor James Dean was killed in a highway collision in Salinas, California.
	November 1	Vietnam War: President Eisenhower deploys the first American personnel from the Military Assistance Advisory Group to South Vietnam after the First Indochina War.
	December 1	Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama after refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, inciting the 386-day Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
	December 5	The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations merged into the AFL-CIO, becoming the largest labor union in the United States.
1956	June 29	The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, authorizing the construction of 41,000 miles of the Interstate Highway System over a 20-year period, was signed into law.
		Hungarian Revolution of 1956: The United States refused to support the revolution.
	November 6	United States presidential election, 1956: President Dwight D. Eisenhower was reelected to a second term, defeating 1952 Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson II in the rematch election.
1957	January 5	The Eisenhower Doctrine, wherein a country could request American economic assistance or military aid if threatened by outside armed aggression, was proclaimed.
	January 10	Dr. King, Rustin, Lowrey, Shuttlesworth and Abernathy founded the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC).
	September 4	Little Rock Integration Crisis: Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus deployed members of the Arkansas National Guard to prevent African-American students from integrating in the Little Rock Central High School.
	September 9	The Civil Rights Act of 1957, primarily a voting rights bill, was signed into law.
	September 23	President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent members of the 101st Airborne Division to escort the Little Rock Nine to their classrooms in response to Governor Faubus' efforts preventing school desegregation.
	October 4	Space race: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik.
	December 2	Atoms for Peace: The Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the first commercial nuclear power plant, went into service.
1958	January 31	Explorer 1: The first U.S. satellite was launched into space.
	July 29	The National Aeronautics and Space Act was signed into law; establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
		Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit.
	September 2	The National Defense Education Act was signed into law.
1959	January 3	Alaska was admitted to the Union, becoming the 49th state.
	February 4	The Day the Music Died: Musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, and pilot, Roger Peterson, were killed in a plane accident.
	May 4	The First Grammy Awards was held.
	July 8	U.S. Army Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand and Major Dale M. Buis were killed in South Vietnam, being the first two official American casualties of the Vietnam War.
	August 21	Hawaii was admitted to the Union, becoming the 50th state.
1960	February 1	The Greensboro sit-ins, sparked by the refusal of four African American college students to move from a segregated lunch counter, began similar widespread acts of civil disobedience to protest Jim Crow laws.
		The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was founded.
	May 1	U-2 incident: A CIA U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission over Soviet airspace.
	May 6	The Civil Rights Act of 1960, establishing federal inspection of local voter registration polls and penalties for those attempting to obstruct the right to vote, was signed into law.
	July 4	The 50-star flag is adopted.
	September 26	The first ever general election debate between presidential candidates was held between Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy and Republican nominee Richard M. Nixon.
	November 8	United States presidential election, 1960: Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy was elected President, defeating Vice President Richard M. Nixon and becoming the youngest person to be elected to the office of the Presidency.
	December 5	Boynton v. Virginia: In a 7–2 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that African-Americans were protected from racial segregation on buses by the Interstate Commerce Act.
December 20	The National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam was formed.
1961	January 3	The United States broke diplomatic relations with Cuba.
	January 17	President Eisenhower gave his farewell address which warned of the "military–industrial complex".
	February 7	The United States embargo against Cuba came into force.
	March 1	President Kennedy signed Executive Order 10924, establishing the Peace Corps.
	March 29	The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, which granted electors to the District of Columbia, was ratified.
	April 17 – 19	Bay of Pigs Invasion: The failed U.S. led invasion and attempted coup d'état of Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro took place.
	May 4	The Freedom Rides began in Washington D.C. after the failure to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling in Boynton v. Virginia.
	May 5	Alan Shepard piloted the Freedom 7 capsule to become the first American in space.
	May 25	President Kennedy proposed the Apollo program, with the goal of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."
	June 16	Vietnam War: President Kennedy deployed an additional 400 U.S. military advisors (900 total) to South Vietnam; totaling 3,200 American troops by 1963, and more than 11,000 by mid-1964.
1962	February 20	John Glenn orbited the Earth.
	March 26	A decision was reached in Baker v. Carr which enabled federal courts to intervene in and to decide reapportionment cases.
	June 11	Three inmates go missing on an escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on June 11, 1962.
	June 25	A decision in Engel v. Vitale determined that it was unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and require its recitation in public schools.
	August 5	Marilyn Monroe died of an apparent overdose from acute barbiturate poisoning at age thirty-six.
	October 14–27	Cuban missile crisis: A nuclear confrontation took place between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1963	February 19	Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, attributed to sparking Second-wave feminism, was published.
	March 18	Gideon v. Wainwright: In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to counsel is protected under the Sixth Amendment.
	April 3	Birmingham campaign: The nonviolent led protests against racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama was launched by the SCLC.
	April 16	Letter from a Birmingham Jail: Dr. King was arrested amid the Birmingham campaign, writing an open letter defending the strategy nonviolent protest.
	June 10	The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was signed into law.
	June 12	NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers was assassinated at his home in Mississippi by white supremacists, hours after President Kennedy gave his Civil Rights Address.
	August 28	March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., among other notable civil rights leaders, spoke on the Lincoln Memorial, giving his historic "I Have a Dream" speech at the march that drew over 200,000 demonstrators.
	September 15	The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, carried out by a KKK splinter group, killed four African-American girls in what was seen as a turning point for the Civil Rights Movement.
	October 7	The Atomic Test Ban Treaty was signed.
	November 22	President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a sniper in Dallas, Texas while traveling in an open presidential motorcade with Texas Governor John Connally, who was injured in the incident.
		Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President, hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
	November 24	Lee Harvey Oswald, the sniper who assassinated President Kennedy, was killed after being fatally shot by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
	November 29	The Warren Commission was established by President Johnson to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.
	December 17	The Clean Air Act was signed into law.
1964	January 23	The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax, was ratified.
	February 7	British Invasion: The Beatles arrived in the United States.
	May 22	President Johnson proposed the Great Society, a set of social reforms aimed at the elimination of poverty and racial injustice.
		The Freedom Summer began, aimed to increase voter registration for African Americans.
	July 2	The Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing both segregation and major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, was signed into law.
	August 2	Tonkin Gulf incident, a false flag operation with 'deliberately skewed' intelligence to expand U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, occurred.
	August 4	Mississippi civil rights workers' murders: The bodies of three missing civil rights activists, working to register voters as a part of the Freedom Summer, were found near Philadelphia, Mississippi.
	August 10	The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, not a formal declaration of war in Vietnam, was signed by President Johnson
	August 20	The Economic Opportunity Act was signed into law.
	November 3	United States presidential election, 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater.
	December 10	Dr. King became the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for his 'nonviolent campaign against racism'.
1965		Vietnam War: Johnson escalates United States military involvement in the war, with the number of U.S. troops totaling more than 184,000.
	February 21	African American Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York.
	March 2	Operation Rolling Thunder began in the Vietnam War.
	March 7	The Selma to Montgomery marches, known as "Bloody Sunday", drew national outrage after Alabama State Troopers severely beat and used tear gas against the nonviolent demonstrators.
	March 25	In a third attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery, 3,200 civil rights demonstrators reached the Alabama State Capitol, where they were joined with a crowd of 25,000, after four days of marching.
	April 17	March Against the Vietnam War: The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the SNCC led the first major anti-war demonstration against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C., with over 25,000 protesters.
	July 30	The Social Security Amendments of 1965 was signed into law, establishing Medicaid and Medicare in the United States.
	August 6	The Voting Rights Act was signed into law.
	August 11 - 17	The Watts riots began in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, resulting in the deaths of 34 people.
	September 9	The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was established, after the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Johnson.
	October 3	The Immigration Act of 1965 was signed into law, abolishing the National Origins Formula.
	November 8	The Higher Education Act of 1965 was passed.
1966	January 18	Robert C. Weaver was sworn in as the first United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, becoming the first African American to hold a cabinet-level position.
	June 13	Miranda v. Arizona: The Supreme Court ruled that not informing suspects held in custody on their right to counsel and silence violated protection against self incrimination, establishing what later became known as "Miranda Rights".
	June 30	The feminist group the National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed.
	July 4	The Freedom of Information Act was signed into law.
	September 9	The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was passed.
1967	January 3	Jack Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism at Parkland Hospital, where Oswald had died and where President Kennedy had been pronounced dead after his assassination.
	January 8	Operation Cedar Falls, the largest ground operation of the Vietnam War, began; with over 500,000 with the number of U.S. troops totaling more than 500,000 by the end of 1967.
	January 15	Super Bowl I: In the first Super Bowl took place between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs.
	February 23	The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, establishing succession to the Presidency and procedures for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, was ratified.
	April 1	The United States Department of Transportation was established.
	April 15	National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam: 400,000 demonstrators march in New York City from Central Park to the United Nations Headquarters against the Vietnam War; with 100,000 protesting the war in San Francisco, being one of the largest demonstrations against the Vietnam War.
		The Summer of Love took place, marking a defining period for the counterculture movement in the U.S.
	June 12	Loving v. Virginia: The Supreme Court overruled the prohibition of interracial marriage.
	July 1	American Samoa became self-governing under a new Constitution.
	October 2	Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; becoming the first African-American Justice to serve on the court.
1968	January 30	The Tet Offensive, a campaign of surprise attacks by the Viet Cong, began.
	April 4	Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a sniper at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
	April 4 - May 29	King assassination riots: The assassination of Dr. King prompted mass riots in Chicago, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Kansas City and Louisville; leaving 36 people dead.
	April 11	The Civil Rights Act of 1968, providing equal housing protection, was signed into law.
	June 5	Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan, after winning the California primary while campaigning for President.
	July 1	The United States signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
	August 25–29	Chicago City Police clashed with anti-war protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
	October 22	The Gun Control Act of 1968 was signed into law.
	November 5	United States presidential election, 1968: Former Vice President Richard Nixon was elected President, defeating incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Alabama Governor George Wallace.
		Shirley Chisholm of New York became the first African-American woman elected to Congress.
	December 21	Apollo 8: The first manned spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit occurred.
1969	March 18	Operation Menu: The United States began its covert bombings of North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia and Laos.
	June 29	The Stonewall riots took place, beginning after police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City, which would mark the start of the modern gay liberation movement in the United States.
	July 18	Chappaquiddick incident: Senator Edward M. Kennedy drove off a bridge on his way home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island, killing his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.
	July 20	Apollo 11: Americans astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins became the first men to land on the moon, with Armstrong becoming the first man to walk on the moon's surface.
	August 15–19	The Woodstock Festival took place in White Lake, New York, proclaimed as "three days of peace and music", it became one of the defining events representing counterculture movement.
	November 3	Vietnamization: President Nixon outlaid his administration's Vietnam policy in response to the Tet Offensive.
	November 10	Sesame Street premiered on National Educational Television.
	November 15	Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam: Over 500,000 peaceful demonstrators protested the Vietnam War in Washington D.C., being the largest anti-war protest in U.S. history.
	December 15	President Nixon announces the withdrawal of 50,000 U.S. troops from Vietnam; reaching the peak level of U.S. troops in Vietnam at 541,000.
1970	January 1	The National Environmental Policy Act, which required federal agencies to consider the environmental impact of their decisions and established the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) within the Executive Office of the President, was signed into law.
	January 5	1969 National Society of Film Critics Awards: An awards ceremony was held for cinema.
	January 11	Super Bowl IV: The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings in a Super Bowl held in New Orleans.
	January 13	The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held in a decision in Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. that men and women must be paid equally under the Equal Pay Act of 1963 even for different jobs with substantially equal responsibilities.
	January 18	1970 Motor Trend 500: A. J. Foyt won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Riverside, California.
		1970 Pro Bowl: The Western Conference beat the Eastern Conference in an all-star game of the National Football League.
	January 19	Republican congressman William T. Cahill resigned his seat representing New Jersey's 6th congressional district to become Governor of New Jersey.
	January 20	1970 NBA All-Star Game: The Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association defeated the Western Conference in an all-star game.
	January 22	1970 State of the Union Address: Nixon addressed a joint session of the Congress.
	January 24	1970 ABA All-Star Game: The Western Conference of the American Basketball Association defeated the Eastern Conference in an all-star game.
	January 27	1970 NFL Draft: A National Football League draft was held in New York City. Terry Bradshaw of Louisiana Tech University was the first overall pick.
	February 1	Republican congressman Glenard P. Lipscomb died.
		1970 24 Hours of Daytona: John Wyer Automotive Engineering won a twenty-four-hour race conducted in Daytona Beach, Florida.
	February 2	1970 U.S. Professional Indoor: A tennis tournament opened in Philadelphia of which Rod Laver would win the singles tournament and Ilie Năstase and Ion Țiriac the doubles.
	February 4	The United States Tax Court held in a decision in Salvatore v. Commissioner that a taxpayer cannot avoid paying taxes on the sale of property by first conveying that property to someone else.
	February 16	San Francisco Police Department Park Station bombing: A pipe bomb probably planted by the Black Liberation Army killed one officer of the San Francisco Police Department and wounded nine others.
	February 22	1970 Daytona 500: Pete Hamilton won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Daytona Beach, Florida.
	March 1	Republican congressman James B. Utt died.
	March 2	In a decision in Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., the Supreme Court held that states may not pass laws which interfere with interstate commerce when such laws impose an undue burden on businesses.
	March 6	Greenwich Village townhouse explosion: An accidental explosion in New York City killed three members of the Weather Underground.
	March 11	12th Annual Grammy Awards: An awards ceremony was held for American music.
	March 17	U.S. postal strike of 1970: Members of a New York City branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers voted to go on strike.
		Eastern Air Lines Shuttle Flight 1320: A flight from Newark, New Jersey to Boston was hijacked and the copilot killed before the hijacker was subdued.
	March 21	1970 12 Hours of Sebring: Scuderia Ferrari won a running of the 12 Hours of Sebring in Sebring, Florida.
	March 23	The Supreme Court held in Goldberg v. Kelly that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires an evidentiary hearing before a recipient of government benefits can be deprived of such benefits.
		U.S. postal strike of 1970: Nixon deployed the National Guard to deliver mail in New York.
		1970 NBA draft: A National Basketball Association draft was held in New York City.
	March 25	U.S. postal strike of 1970: The strike ended.
	March 31	The Supreme Court held in a decision in In re Winship that when a juvenile is charged with an act that would be a crime if committed by an adult, every element of the offense must be proved beyond reasonable doubt, not preponderance of the evidence.
	April 1	The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned tobacco advertising on radio and television and changed the verbiage of tobacco packaging warning messages, was signed into law.
		Operation Texas Star: American and South Vietnamese forces entered the A Sầu Valley.
	April 3	The Environmental Quality Improvement Act, which expanded the responsibilities of the CEQ to include supervision of federal agencies under the National Environmental Policy Act, was signed into law.
	April 5	Newhall massacre: Two criminals killed four officers of the California Highway Patrol following a traffic stop in Newhall, Santa Clarita, California.
	April 6	The Supreme Court held in Ashe v. Swenson that an issue of fact determined in a final judgement cannot be relitigated between the same two parties.
		The Supreme Court reached a decision in Dandridge v. Williams in which it held that Maryland's cap on aid granted under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
		In a decision in Waller v. Florida, the Supreme Court held that the Double Jeopardy Clause protects defendants from successive prosecutions by states and municipalities for offenses based on the same criminal conduct.
	April 7	42nd Academy Awards: An awards ceremony was held for American cinema.
	April 12	1970 Alabama 500: Pete Hamilton won the first running of what is now the GEICO 500 in Talladega, Alabama.
	April 13	1970 Masters Tournament: Billy Casper won a Masters Tournament held in Augusta, Georgia.
	April 17	April 17–19, 1970 tornado outbreak sequence: A three-day tornado outbreak sequence began with outbreaks in the Southwest.
	April 19	24th Tony Awards: An awards ceremony was held for Broadway theatre.
	April 20	1970 Boston Marathon: Ron Hill won a running of the Boston Marathon.
	April 24	Operation Patio: The Seventh Air Force began bombing North Vietnamese military targets in Cambodia within eight miles of the South Vietnamese border.
	April 25	Operation Patio: The bombing area was extended to eighteen miles inside the Cambodian border.
	April 30	Cambodian Campaign: Nixon announced the beginning of American military operations in Cambodia with the objective of destroying the Central Office for South Vietnam, the North Vietnamese military headquarters in South Vietnam.
	1 May	Democratic congressman William St. Onge died.
	2 May	The Jackson 5 First National Tour: The Jackson 5 held the first concert of their first tour, in Philadelphia.
		1970 Kentucky Derby: Dust Commander won a running of the Kentucky Derby.
		ALM Flight 980: Some twenty passengers were killed and forty injured after a flight from New York City to Sint Maarten ran out of fuel and was forced to make a water landing.
	4 May	Kent State shootings: The Ohio Army National Guard fired on a crowd of students protesting the Cambodian Campaign at Kent State University, killing four and injuring nine others.
		The Supreme Court reached a decision in Brady v. United States, in which it held that reserving the power to impose a death sentence to a jury did not coerce the plaintiff to reject a jury trial.
		In a decision in Parker v. North Carolina, the Supreme Court held that a plea agreement entered into in order to avoid the death penalty was valid.
		The Supreme Court reached a decision in Rowan v. United States Post Office Department in which it held that there is no Constitutional right to send unwanted mail into someone's home.
		The Supreme Court held in a decision in Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York that the granting of tax exemptions to religious organizations does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
		Operation Patio: The operation was ended.
	7 May	The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held in a decision in Javins v. First National Realty Corp. that an implied warranty of habitability exists in leases of residential property.
	8 May	Student strike of 1970: Some three hundred thousand students, largely in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, joined in protest of the Vietnam War.
		Hard Hat riot: A violent confrontation took place between student anti-war protesters and members of the AFL–CIO in the Financial District and City Hall in New York City.
		1970 NBA Finals: The New York Knicks defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the seventh game of the finals series in New York City.
	9 May	1970 Rebel 400: David Pearson won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Darlington, South Carolina.
	11 May	1970 Lubbock tornado: A tornado in Lubbock, Texas killed some thirty people.
		1970 Augusta riot: Protests over the suspicious death of a young inmate in police custody in Augusta, Georgia devolved into rioting.
	12 May	Killing of Henry Marrow: A young black man was murdered by a white mob in Oxford, North Carolina.
	15 May	Jackson State killings: The Jackson Police Department and Mississippi Highway Patrol fired on a group of students at what is now Jackson State University, killing two and injuring twelve.
16 May	Miss USA 1970: Deborah Shelton won a Miss USA pageant held in Miami Beach, Florida.
	1970 Preakness Stakes: Personality won a running of the Preakness Stakes.
18 May	In a decision in Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Ass'n, Inc. v. Bresler, the Supreme Court held that the use of the word "blackmail" in a newspaper article about a public figure was rhetorical hyperbole and could not be found to be libel under the First Amendment.
19 May	Operation Freedom Deal: The Seventh Air Force began providing air support to Cambodian forces against North Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge.
20 May	Hurricane Alma: A tropical storm in the Caribbean Sea became a hurricane.
21 May	The Airport and Airway Development Act of 1970 was signed into law, establishing the excise-funded Airport and Airway Trust Fund for the improvement of airports and air traffic control.
24 May	1970 World 600: Donnie Allison won a running of what is now the Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, North Carolina.
25 May	The Supreme Court reached a decision in Schacht v. United States in which it held that the use of accurate military uniforms in a play is protected under the First Amendment.
30 May	1970 Indianapolis 500: Al Unser won a running of the Indianapolis 500 in Speedway, Indiana.
June 1	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. that a party moving for summary judgment carries the burden of proof to establish a lack of factual controversy.
June 4	43rd Scripps National Spelling Bee: Fourteen-year-old Libby Childress won a spelling contest held in Washington, D.C..
June 13	Nixon called the President's Commission on Campus Unrest.
June 15	The Supreme Court reached a decision in Evans v. Cornman in which it held that denying the right to vote to people living in federal enclaves is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Mitchell v. Donovan that it did not have authority to hear an appeal against a decision by a three-member United States district court granting or denying a declaratory judgment.
June 18	1970 NCAA University Division Outdoor Track and Field Championships: A track and field event concluded in Des Moines, Iowa. Brigham Young University, the University of Kansas and the University of Oregon tied for first place.
June 22	The Supreme Court held in Chambers v. Maroney that police officers who searched a vehicle after moving it to their stationhouse had not violated the plaintiff's rights under the Fourth Amendment.
	The Supreme Court reached a decision in Williams v. Florida in which it held that the Fifth Amendment does not entitle a defendant in a criminal trial to refuse to provide details of his alibi witnesses to the prosecution, and that the Sixth Amendment does not require a jury to have twelve members.
June 27	1970 Greenville 200: Bobby Isaac won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Greenville, South Carolina.
June 29	In a decision in Gunn v. University Committee to End the War in Viet Nam, the Supreme Court held that it had no authority to hear an appeal against a decision in a lower court which neither granted nor denied an injunction.
June 30	Republicans John H. Rousselot and John G. Schmitz were elected to fill the vacancies left by the deaths of Lipscomb and Utt, respectively.
July 1	Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord: The North Vietnamese army began placing an American support base in the A Sầu Valley under mortar fire.
July 3	Atlanta International Pop Festival: A three-day music festival opened in Byron, Georgia.
July 9	Nixon issued Reorganization Plan No. 3, ordering the consolidation of several existing agencies into the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with the authority to issue and enforce regulations in accordance with environmental laws.
July 10	The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in a decision in Roth Greeting Cards v. United Card Co. that a work may infringe on a copyright if its "total concept and feel" is substantially similar to that of the original work.
July 11	Miss Universe 1970: Marisol Malaret won a Miss Universe pageant held in Miami Beach, Florida.
July 14	1970 Major League Baseball All-Star Game: The National League defeated the American League in an all-star game of Major League Baseball held in Cincinnati.
July 23	Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord: United States forces completed a withdrawal from the base and carpet bombed the area.
July 27	Democratic congressman Michael J. Kirwan died.
	1970 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships: A tennis tournament opened in Indianapolis of which Cliff Richey would win the singles tournament and Clark Graebner and Arthur Ashe the doubles.
July 29	1970 First National Tennis Classic: A tennis tournament opened in Louisville, Kentucky of which Rod Laver would win the singles tournament and John Newcombe and Tony Roche the doubles.
July 31	Powder Ridge Rock Festival: Some thirty thousand attendees arrived for a cancelled music festival at the Powder Ridge Ski Area.
August 1	Hurricane Celia: A tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico became a hurricane.
August 3	1970 U.S. Pro Tennis Championships: A tennis tournament opened in Boston of which Tony Roche would win the singles tournament and Roy Emerson and Rod Laver the doubles.
August 7	Republican congressman George Watkins (politician) died.
	Marin County courthouse incident: Jonathan P. Jackson and three Black Panthers kidnapped judge Harold Haley and several others from the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California in an attempt to free the Soledad Brothers. Haley and his captors were killed at a police roadblock during their attempted escape.
August 12	The Postal Reorganization Act, which replaced the United States Post Office Department with the United States Postal Service, was signed into law.
August 15	The Economic Stabilization Act of 1970 was enacted, granting the President extensive powers to stabilize prices and wages and establishing standards for price and wage controls.
August 23	Salad Bowl strike: Farm workers represented by the United Farm Workers went on strike after lettuce growers in the Salinas Valley agreed to allow the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to represent their workers.
August 24	Sterling Hall bombing: Student radicals detonated a bomb at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, killing physics researcher Robert Fassnacht and injuring three others.
August 25	1970 Little League World Series: A Little League World Series opened in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania which would see the Little League team of Wayne, New Jersey win the title.
August 26	Women's Strike for Equality: Some twenty thousand women took part in a protest in New York City led by feminist organization the National Organization for Women.
August 28	Vortex I: A music festival opened in Milo McIver State Park.
August 31	Tropical Storm Norma: A tropical cyclone formed off the coast of Mexico.
September 5	Operation Texas Star: The operation came to a close.
	Operation Jefferson Glenn: American and South Vietnamese forces began patrols in Thừa Thiên-Huế Province.
September 11	Operation Tailwind: American and South Vietnamese forces covertly invaded southeastern Laos in pursuit of North Vietnamese forces.
September 12	Miss America 1971: Phyllis George won a Miss America pageant held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
September 13	NASL Final 1970: The Rochester Lancers defeated the Washington Darts in a two-game aggregate match.
	Operation Tailwind: The involved forces returned to South Vietnam.
	1970 Road Atlanta Can-Am: Tony Dean won a Can-Am race held in Braselton, Georgia.
September 15	Tropical Storm Felice: A tropical storm made landfall at High Island, Texas.
September 21	1970 Pacific Southwest Open: A men's and women's tennis tournament opened in Los Angeles.
September 22	Congress passed the District of Columbia Delegate Act, allowing Washington, D.C. residents to elect a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives.
	Laguna Fire: A fire began in San Diego County which would cost eight lives and burn some three hundred square miles.
September 28	1970 Pacific Coast International Open: A tennis tournament opened in Berkeley, California which would see Arthur Ashe win the singles title and Bob Lutz and Stan Smith the doubles.
September 30	1970 Home State 200: Richard Petty won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Raleigh, North Carolina.
October	New Haven Black Panther trials: Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, went on trial for ordering the torture and murder of fellow Panther Alex Rackley.
October 2	Wichita State University football team plane crash: Some thirty people were killed and nine injured in a plane crash in Clear Creek County, Colorado.
October 4	1970 United States Grand Prix: Emerson Fittipaldi won a Formula One race held in Watkins Glen, New York.
October 5	1970 American League Championship Series: The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Minnesota Twins in three games.
	1970 National League Championship Series: The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in three games.
October 6	The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in a decision in Aronow v. United States that the presence of the phrase "In God We Trust" on American currency does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
	Operation Jefferson Glen: The operation came to a close.
October 11	1970 National 500: LeeRoy Yarbrough won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Concord, North Carolina.
October 15	The Organized Crime Control Act and its subsection the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act were signed into law, extending penalties to organizations involved in illegal activities and banning their involvement in gambling.
	1970 World Series: The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Cincinnati Reds in five games.
October	The Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1970, which appropriated twelve billion dollars in matching funds to state and local governments for mass transit, was signed into law.
October 26	The Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to file reports for large or suspicious cash transactions, was signed into law.
October 27	The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 and its subsection the Controlled Substances Act were signed into law, establishing security and recordkeeping requirements in the pharmaceutical industry and classifying drugs into schedules with varying criminal penalties for their consumption and possession.
November	Recession of 1969–70: A minor economic recession ended.
November 1	Puerto Rican suffrage referendum, 1970: A referendum lowered the voting age in Puerto Rico from 21 to eighteen.
November 3	United States elections, 1970: The Democratic Party retained its majority in the Senate and increased its majority in the House.
	United States gubernatorial elections, 1970: Elections were held to the governorships of thirty-five states. The Democratic Party gained eleven seats.
November 4	Laguna Fire: The fire ended.
November 8	1970 Georgia 500: Richard Petty won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Byron, Georgia.
November 9	Democratic congressman William L. Dawson (politician) died.
November 14	Southern Airways Flight 932: A plane crash in Ceredo, West Virginia killed some eighty passengers and crew.
November 15	1970 American 500: Cale Yarborough won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Rockingham, North Carolina.
November 17	Democrat Adlai Stevenson III took office following his election to complete the term of Republican senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois.
November 22	1970 Tidewater 300: Bobby Allison won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Hampton, Virginia.
November 23	The Supreme Court held in a decision in North Carolina v. Alford that a judge may accept an Alford plea, in which the defendant claims innocence but concedes that the evidence against him could produce a conviction.
	The United States and Mexico concluded the Boundary Treaty of 1970, under which the Rio Grande was established as the border between the two nations. Three small tracts of land including the Horcón Tract were exchanged.
November 30	The Agricultural Act of 1970 was signed into law, providing for the issuance of marketing certificates in place of acreage allotments and planting restrictions to manage agricultural production.
December 2	The EPA came into existence.
December 6	1970 Lehigh Valley Railroad derailment: A train derailment in Le Roy, New York resulted in a spill of toxic chemicals.
December 9	The Horse Protection Act of 1970, which outlawed soring, was signed into law.
	1970 Propane vapor cloud explosion in Port Hudson: An explosion occurred following a leak in a pipeline in Franklin County, Missouri.
December 12	1970 Liberty Bowl: Tulane University defeated the University of Colorado in a college football bowl game in Memphis, Tennessee.
December 21	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Oregon v. Mitchell that Congress could not set voting age requirements for state elections.
December 24	The Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970 was signed into law, amending the Public Health Service Act to include Title X, which subsidizes family planning and preventative health measures for low-income individuals.
	The Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970 was signed into law, granting intellectual property rights to breeders of sexually reproduced or tuber-propagated crops.
December 28	Democratic congressman L. Mendel Rivers died.
	1970 Tangerine Bowl: The University of Toledo defeated the College of William & Mary in a college football bowl game in Orlando, Florida.
December 29	The Occupational Safety and Health Act was signed into law, requiring employers to meet minimum safety standards and establishing an enforcement agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
December 30	1970 Peach Bowl: Arizona State University defeated the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in a college football bowl game in Atlanta.
	Hurricane Creek mine disaster: An explosion at a mine outside Hyden, Kentucky killed some forty miners.
December 31	The Clean Air Act of 1970 was passed, amending the Clean Air Act to include extensive regulatory standards.
	The Housing and Urban Development Act of 1970 and its subsection the National Urban Policy and New Community Development Act of 1970 were signed into law, granting the Department of Housing and Urban Development the funds and authority to guarantee debt issued for the construction of new towns.
	Republican senator John J. Williams (senator) of Delaware resigned his seat. His protégé William V. Roth Jr., then a congressman and senator-elect, was appointed to succeed him.
	1970 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl: The University of Alabama tied the University of Oklahoma in a college football bowl game in Houston.
	The 10th Aerospace Defense Group was inactivated.
1971	January 25	Charles Manson is sentenced to death (with his sentence later commuted to life in prison) for his involvement in the Tate-LaBianca murders.
	April 1	The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act was signed into law, banning cigarette advertisements on radio and television and issuing a Surgeon General's warning on tobacco products.
	June 13	Pentagon Papers: The New York Times publishes its first story on the classified 7,000-page Department of Defense study, leaked by study participant Daniel Ellsberg, on the U.S.'s political-military involvement in Vietnam since 1945.
	June 17	President Nixon declares a "War on Drugs", stating that drug use in the U.S. is "public enemy number one."
	June 30	New York Times Co. v. United States: The Supreme Court ruled that the Pentagon Papers may be published, rejecting government injunctions as unconstitutional prior restraint.
	July 1	The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, was ratified.
	August 15	Nixon Shock: Nixon ended the gold standard in the United States.
	September 13	Attica Prison riot: After four days of holding 39 prison staff members hostage, a raid that led to a riot at the Attica Correctional Facility was launched by New York State Police; leaving 43 staff and prisoners dead and being the deadliest prison riot in U.S. history.
1972	February 21–28	1972 Nixon visit to China: President Nixon became the first U.S. President to visit the People's Republic of China, marking the end of 25 years of isolation between the U.S. and China.
	May 26	SALT I Treaty: The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was signed between the Soviet Union and United States at the Moscow Summit.
	June 9–10	Black Hills flood: Flooding in the Black Hills region of Western South Dakota killed 238 people.
	June 17	Watergate burglaries: Five men were arrested for the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
	June 23	The Education Amendments of 1972, enacting Title IX and prohibiting gender based discrimination of educational institutions, was signed into law.
	June 29	Furman v. Georgia: The Supreme Court ruled that application of the death penalty outside of cases of homicide violated protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
	October 17	The Clean Water Act is enacted, was overridden by the Senate.
	November 7	U.S. presidential election, 1972: President Nixon was reelected to a second term, defeating South Dakota Senator George McGovern.
	December 14	Apollo 17 became the final mission of the Apollo program and last human spaceflight to the moon.
	December 18	Operation Linebacker II: The final major U.S. bombing campaign in North Vietnam began.
1973	January 22	Roe v. Wade: The Supreme Court ruled that state laws banning abortion before 24 weeks as unconstitutional.
	January 23	The Paris Peace Accords was signed, ending the United States' direct involvement in the Vietnam War.
	May 3	The Sears Towers opened in Chicago, becoming the World's tallest building.
	May 14	The space station Skylab was launched by NASA.
	May 17	The United States Senate Watergate Committee held its first hearing.
	October 10	Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in disgrace as part of a plea bargain after being charged with tax evasion, extortion and conspiracy.
	October 20	Saturday Night massacre: President Nixon fired three top legal advisers over the disposition of secret tapes and the actions of the Special Prosecutor in regard to the Watergate scandal.
	October	1973 oil crisis: Gasoline prices in the U.S. quadrupled over a three-month period in response to reduced supply of gasoline and heating oil.
	December 6	House Minority Leader Gerald Ford of Michigan was sworn in as Vice President after the resignation of Spiro Agnew; becoming the first Vice President to be appointed under the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
1974	April 3–4	1974 Super Outbreak: An outbreak of 148 tornadoes hit thirteen states, killing 330 people.
	April 8	Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves broke Babe Ruth's home run record by hitting his 715th career home run.
	June 30	The House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach President Nixon over his actions in the Watergate Scandal.
	August 9	President Richard Nixon becomes the first and only President to resign from office. After submitting his resignation in an address to the nation the evening before, Nixon stated that "the interest of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations."
		Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in as President after the resignation of President Nixon.
	September 8	President Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed as President during the Watergate Scandal.
	December 31	Executive Order 6102, restricting the private holding of gold within the United States, was lifted.
1975	January 27	The Church Committee, Chaired by Idaho Senator Frank Church, was established in the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal; investigating the illegal activities of the CIA, NSA and FBI.
	April 4	Bill Gates founded Microsoft Corporation.
	April 30	Fall of Saigon: Saigon, the capitol of South Vietnam, was captured by the People's Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong, causing the South to surrender and officially ending the Vietnam War.
	July 15	Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: The first joint U.S.–Soviet space mission began in Kazakhstan.
	September 5	President Ford was uninjured after a failed assassination attempt by Manson Family cult member Lynette Fromme in Sacramento, California.
1976	April 1	Steve Jobs founded Apple Inc.
	July 2	Gregg v. Georgia: The Supreme Court affirmed that the death penalty did not violate the Eighth Amendment.
	July 4	United States Bicentennial: Americans celebrated the United States bicentennial.
	October 19	The Copyright Act of 1976 was signed into law.
	November 2	U.S. presidential election, 1976: Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter was elected President, defeating incumbent Gerald Ford.
1977	January 23	The television miniseries Roots aired on ABC.
	May 25	Star Wars is released and goes on to become the highest-grossing film of its time.
	July 13–14	New York City blackout of 1977: A twenty-five-hour blackout, resulting in looting and other disorder, took place.
	August 4	The United States Department of Energy is established.
	August 16	Elvis Presley, the "King of Rock and Roll", died at his home in Graceland.
	September 7	The Torrijos–Carter Treaties between the U.S. and Panama, relinquishing U.S. control of the Panama Canal, were ratified.
	Mid-October	The Commodore PET, the first personal computer for retail sale, was released.
1978	September 17	The Camp David Accords were signed by Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt at Camp David.
	October 25	The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was signed into law.
	October 27	The Humphrey Hawkins Full Employment Act was signed into law.
	November 18	Jonestown massacre: The mass-suicide of 909 American citizens who were members of the religious cult the Peoples Temple, led by Jim Jones, occurred in Guyana. With the addition murders of nine others, including Congressman Leo Ryan, the 918 deaths were the largest loss of American life in a single incident and in a non-natural disaster at the time.
	November 27	Moscone–Milk assassinations: Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to public office, and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, were assassinated by Dan White in San Francisco.
1979	March 28	Three Mile Island accident: The partial nuclear meltdown and release of small amounts of radioactive gases and iodine of a nuclear power plant in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania began; considered to be the worst commercial nuclear power accident in U.S. history.
	May 21	White Night riots: After the lenient sentence of Moscone-Milk assassin Dan White, over 5,000 demonstrators in San Francisco's gay community staged what turned into a violent protest.
	May 25	American Airlines Flight 191 flight crashed shortly after takeoff from O'Hare International Airport, killing all 271 aboard and two on the ground; being the deadliest aviation accident on U.S. soil.
	October 17	The United States Department of Education is established.
	November 4	Iran hostage crisis: The U.S. embassy in Tehran was raided by student activists of the Iranian Revolution after overthrown CIA instated Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was allowed into the U.S.; beginning the 444-day capture of the embassy and the holding of fifty-two American embassy personnel.
1980	March 18	The Refugee Act was signed into law.
	March 21	1980 Summer Olympics boycott: Protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter announces the U.S. would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow.
	April 4	The United States Department of Health and Human Services was established.
	April 24	Operation Eagle Claw: Eight U.S. military personnel were killed after the failed attempt to rescue the fifty-two American hostages held at the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
	May 18	Eruption of Mount St. Helens: The eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington killed fifty-seven people.
	June 1	CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel, was founded.
	November 4	U.S. presidential election, 1980: California Governor Ronald Reagan was elected President, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter and Illinois Representative John B. Anderson.
	December 8	Musician John Lennon was assassinated outside of The Dakota in New York City.
1981	January 20	Iran releases the 52 U.S. hostages held in Tehran after 444 days (the day of the swearing in of President Ronald Reagan); signing the Algiers Accords.
	March 30	Reagan assassination attempt: President Reagan and three others were injured after an assassination attempt of the President by John Hinckley, outside of the Hilton Washington in Washington D.C.
	April 12	STS-1: The Space Shuttle Columbia was launched, being the first flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program.
	July 17	Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: A hotel walkway collapsed in Kansas City, Missouri, killing 114 and injuring over two hundred.
	August 1	MTV, the first 24-hour cable network dedicated to airing music videos, was launched.
	August 4	Reaganomics: The Kemp-Roth Tax Cut was signed into law.
	September 21	Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, becoming the first woman to serve on the court.
	November 16	President Reagan signed NDSS 17, authorizing the beginning of CIA support for contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1982	June 12	Anti-nuclear protests were held at Central Park in New York City, with nearly one million peaceful demonstrators protesting the arms race.
	August 25	Multinational forces, including 800 Marines, were deployed to Lebanon to oversee the withdrawal of Palestine Liberation Organization after Lebanese Civil War.
1983	March 23	President Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative.
	April 18	1983 United States embassy bombing: The U.S. embassy in Beirut was bombed by members of the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), killing 63 people, including 17 U.S. government personnel.
	October 23	Beirut barracks bombing: 241 United States Marine Corps personnel were killed in a suicide bombing by members of the IJO in Lebanon.
	October 25	Operation Urgent Fury: Under executive action from President Reagan, the U.S. deployed 1,900 military personnel in the Invasion of Grenada.
1984	April 23	U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler announces Dr. Robert Gallo and fellow NCI researcher's discovery of HTLV-III as the virus that causes AIDS.
	May 8	1984 Summer Olympics boycott: The Soviet Union, later joined by most of the Eastern Bloc, announced the boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles.
	July 18	San Ysidro McDonald's massacre: A mass shooting in San Ysidro, California left 22 (including the perpetrator) dead and injured 19 others; being the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at the time.
	November 6	U.S. presidential election, 1984: President Reagan was reelected to a second term, defeating former Vice President Walter Mondale.
1985	July 13	Live Aid, a concert attended by 100,000 people and watched by 1.9 billion viewers in 150 countries at the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, was held, raising global awareness of famine in Ethiopia.
		Arrow Air Flight 1285, carrying U.S. Army personnel to Egypt, crashed in Newfoundland, Canada, killing all 256 passengers on board and being the deadliest single aviation accident in the history of the U.S. military.
1986	January 20	The first Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is observed.
	January 28	Space Shuttle Challenger disaster: The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded due to a leak in the shuttle's solid rocket booster 73 seconds after departing from the Kennedy Space Center, killing all seven crew members aboard, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe.
	April 15	Operation El Dorado Canyon: The U.S. began air strikes against Libya after the Berlin discotheque bombing.
	May 19	The Firearm Owners Protection Act was signed into law.
	May 25	Hands Across America: Over five million Americans formed a human chain across the contiguous United States, holding hands for 15 minutes to raise awareness of hunger and homelessness.
	October 1	The Goldwater–Nichols Act was signed into law.
	October 9	The Fox Broadcasting Company was founded.
	October 21	The Compact of Free Association was signed by the U.S., giving Independence to the Marshall Islands.
	October 22	The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was signed into law.
	November 3	Iran–Contra affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa first revealed that the United States had secretly sold weapons to Iran in exchange for American hostages, amid a U.S. arms embargo.
	November 6	The Immigration Reform and Control Act was signed into law.
	November 25	After the resignation of National Security Advisor John Poindexter, Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that the profits from the U.S. arms trade with Iran were illegally diverted to support contra groups in Nicaragua.
	November 26	The Tower Commission is established by President Reagan to investigate the Iran-Contra affair.
1987	May 5	Joint special House and Senate hearings on the Iran-Contra affair began.
	June 12	During a visit to Berlin, President Reagan challenged Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall", referring to the Berlin Wall.
	October 19	Black Monday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points in a single session, losing 22.6% of its value.
	October 23	The U.S. Senate rejects President Reagan's Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork.
	November 18	A joint congressional report investigating the Iran-Contra affair found that the "ultimate responsibility for the events in the Iran-contra affair must rest with the President."
	December 8	The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C. between the U.S. and Soviet Union.
1988	May 14	Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver crashed into a church bus near Carrollton, Kentucky, killing twenty-seven people.
		The Yellowstone fires of 1988 burned 793,880 acres of Yellowstone National Park.
	August 8	Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois added lights for night games, being the last major league park that didn't have lights.
	August 10	The Civil Liberties Act, compensating Japanese Americans who "lost liberty or property because of discriminatory action by the Federal government during World War II", was signed into law.
	August 30	STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery was launched.
	November 2	Morris worm, the first computer worm distributed via the Internet, was launched.
	November 8	U.S. presidential election, 1988: Vice President George H. W. Bush was elected President, defeating Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.
1989	March 15	The United States Department of Veterans Affairs was established.
	March 24	Exxon Valdez oil spill: An oil tanker struck a reef in Prince William Sound, spilling over 11 million gallons of crude oil in the Gulf of Alaska.
	May 31	Speaker of the House Jim Wright becomes the first House Speaker to resign amid scandal; he was succeeded by Tom Foley.
	September 10–22	Hurricane Hugo struck the East Coast, killing 49 people and causing $7 billion in damage.
	October 17	The Loma Prieta earthquake, striking the San Francisco Bay Area and interrupting the 1989 World Series, killed sixty-three people.
	December 3	Malta Summit: President Bush and Soviet Premier Gorbachev met in Malta weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, releasing statements indicating that the war may be coming to an end.
	December 20	Operation Just Cause: 26,000 U.S. military personnel were deployed in the U.S. invasion of Panama, removing Military Governor Manuel Noriega from power and restoring Panama's democratically elected government.
		The Office of National Drug Control Policy was established.
1990	January 13	Douglas Wilder was elected Governor of Virginia, becoming the first African American to become governor of a U.S. State.
	April 24	The Hubble Space Telescope was launched during a mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery.
	June 1	The 1990 Chemical Weapons Accord was signed between the United States and the Soviet Union.
	July 26	The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law.
	August 2	Gulf War: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein leads the deployment of 140,000 Iraqi troops in the invasion of Kuwait.
	November 15	The Clean Air Act of 1990 was signed into law.
1991	January 17	Operation Desert Storm: The United States leads 34 coalition nations in the invasion of Ba'athist Iraq; deploying over 500,000 U.S. military personnel in response to Iraq's annexation of Kuwait.
	February 28	President George H.W. Bush announces that a cease fire was reached between in the Gulf War, stating that "Kuwait is liberated. Iraq's army is defeated."
	July 31	START I was signed between the United States and the Soviet Union.
	December 26	The dissolution of the Soviet Union, recognizing the independence of twelve Soviets states after the resignation of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who declared his office extinct, formally ended the Cold War.
		Confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas were held by the Senate Judiciary Committee, after allegations regarding sexual harassment charges were pressed by former aide Anita Hill.
1992	April 29– May 4	1992 Los Angeles riots: Riots in Los Angeles, spurred by the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the beating of Rodney King, took place, which resulted in over fifty deaths and $1 billion in damage.
	May 7	The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting changes to Congressmen's salaries from taking effect until after an election of Representatives, was ratified.
	August 16–28	Hurricane Andrew: A Category 5 hurricane killed sixty-five people and caused $26 billion in damage to Florida and other areas of the Gulf Coast.
	November 3	United States presidential election, 1992: Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton was elected President, defeating incumbent George H. W. Bush and Texas businessman Ross Perot.
1993	January 3	START II was signed between the United States and the Russian Federation.
	February 13– April 19	Waco siege: After the ATF failed to raid the compound of members of the religious sect the Branch Davidians, the FBI prompted a 51-day standoff; resulting in the deaths of 72 Branch Davidians after a fire broke out in the compound.
	February 26	1993 World Trade Center bombing: A truck bomb exploded in the parking garage under the World Trade Center in Manhattan, killing six people and injuring 1,042 others.
	October 3–4	Battle of Mogadishu: 18 U.S. military personnel, as a part of Operation Gothic Serpent, were killed and 84 wounded after a seventeen-hour assault was prompted by Somali militiamen.
	November 30	The Don't ask, don't tell policy, prohibiting openly gay and bisexual people from serving in the military, was signed into law.
		The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was signed into law.
	December 8	The North American Free Trade Agreement was signed by the United States.
		Great Flood of 1993: Massive flooding along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers killed 48 people and caused $30.2 billion in damage; being the costliest flood in U.S. history.
1994	January 17	The 1994 Northridge earthquake, striking the Northridge, Los Angeles area, killed fifty-seven people and leaving 20,000 others homeless; causing $20 billion in damage and being the costliest earthquake in U.S. history.
	September 19	The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, authorizing the Federal Assault Weapons Ban and the Violence Against Women Act, was signed into law.
	November 8	Republican Revolution: The Republican Party picked up 54 seats in the House and 8 seats in the Senate, being one of the largest shifts in party balance in U.S. congressional history.
1995	January 1	1995 Orange Bowl: The Nebraska Cornhuskers beat the Miami Hurricanes in a college football bowl game in Miami.
		1995 Peach Bowl: The NC State Wolfpack defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs in a college football bowl game in Atlanta.
	January 2	1995 Carquest Bowl: The South Carolina Gamecocks defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers in a college football bowl game in Miami Gardens, Florida.
		1995 Hall of Fame Bowl: The Wisconsin Badgers beat the Duke Blue Devils in a college football bowl game in Tampa, Florida.
		1995 Cotton Bowl Classic: The USC Trojans decisively beat the Texas Tech Red Raiders in a college football bowl game in Dallas.
		1995 Fiesta Bowl: The Colorado Buffaloes defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a college football bowl game in Tempe, Arizona.
		1995 Florida Citrus Bowl: The Alabama Crimson Tide beat the Ohio State Buckeyes in a college football bowl game held in Orlando, Florida.
		1995 Rose Bowl: The Penn State Nittany Lions defeated the Oregon Ducks in a college football bowl game in Pasadena, California.
		1995 Sugar Bowl: The Florida State Seminoles defeated the Florida Gators in a college football bowl game in New Orleans.
	January 9	Operation United Shield: The Navy, joined by the navies of Italy and Pakistan, began withdrawing UN forces from Somalia.
	January 10	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Tome v. United States that hearsay is inadmissible as evidence except in the case of statements made before a motive to fabricate arose.
	January 11	1994–95 NHL lockout: A lockout by the National Hockey League against its players ended.
	January 13	1995 Citizen Cup: A yacht racing tournament began.
	January 22	Royal Rumble: A World Wrestling Federation event was held in Tampa, Florida.
	January 23	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Schlup v. Delo that a defendant may petition to have a case reopened where a constitutional violation has probably resulted in the conviction of an innocent man.
		The Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, which made the Congress and its associated agencies subject to twelve employment and workplace safety laws and established a compliance office, the United States Congress Office of Compliance, was signed into law.
	January 24	1995 State of the Union Address: In an address to a joint session of the Congress, Clinton advocated for a range of foreign and domestic policy actions including his conservative New Covenant.
	January 29	Super Bowl XXIX: The San Francisco 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers in a Super Bowl in Miami.
	January 31	Mexican peso crisis: The Exchange Stabilization Fund contributed twenty billion dollars to an International Monetary Fund-organized bailout of the Mexican government.
	February 5	1995 Skoal Bandit Copper World Classic: Mike Skinner won a running of what is now the Camping World Truck Series in Avondale, Arizona.
		1995 Pro Bowl: The American Football Conference defeated the National Football Conference in an all-star game of the National Football League in Honolulu.
		1995 Bandy World Championship: Sweden won a bandy championship tournament held in Roseville, Minnesota.
	February 6	STS-63: The space shuttle Discovery approached the Russian space station Mir in orbit.
	February 7	1995 U.S. Figure Skating Championships: A figure skating event opened in Providence, Rhode Island.
	February 9	1995 Caribbean Series: The Senadores de San Juan won an international baseball tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
		A bill was signed into law amending the authority of the leaders of the House and Senate to hire and pay employees.
	February 10	Miss USA 1995: Chelsi Smith won a beauty pageant in South Padre Island, Texas.
	February 12	1995 NBA All-Star Game: The Western Conference won an all-star game of the National Basketball Association in Phoenix, Arizona.
	February 18	Murder of Tracie McBride: Soldier Tracie McBride was kidnapped, raped and murdered in Coke County, Texas.
	February 19	1995 Daytona 500: Sterling Marlin won a running of the Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Florida.
	February 21	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Lebron v. National Railroad Passenger Corp. that Amtrak is a government agency for the purposes of the First Amendment and cannot turn down advertisements containing political speech.
	February 22	Chicago mayoral election, 1995: Democratic mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago was reelected with sixty percent of the vote.
		The Supreme Court held in a decision in United States v. National Treasury Employees Union that a law prohibiting government employees from accepting an honorarium for making a speech or appearance violated the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech.
	February 25	1st Screen Actors Guild Awards: An awards ceremony for acting in movies and television was held in Los Angeles.
	February 26	1995 Goodwrench 500: Jeff Gordon won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Richmond County, North Carolina.
		Freeman family murders: Neo-Nazis Bryan and David Freeman murder their parents and younger brother in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
	February 27	1995 Tennis Channel Open: A tennis tournament began in Scottsdale, Arizona in which Jim Courier would win the singles and Trevor Kronemann and David Macpherson the doubles.
		1995 Puerto Rico Open: A women's hardcourt tennis tournament began in San Juan, Puerto Rico in which Joannette Kruger won the singles and Karin Kschwendt and Rene Simpson the doubles.
		1995 Newsweek Champions Cup and the State Farm Evert Cup: A hardcourt tennis tournament opened in Indian Wells, California.
	March 1	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Arizona v. Evans that the exclusionary rule does not apply when an error in a warrant, or the misrepresented existence of a warrant, occurs due to the actions of personnel not enforcing the law, such as court clerks.
		37th Annual Grammy Awards: An awards ceremony was held for American music.
	March 3	Deep Purple Secret USA Tour: Rock group Deep Purple held the first show of a two-concert tour in Orlando, Florida.
		Democratic senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado switched parties to become a Republican.
		Operation United Shield: The last UN forces were withdrawn from Somalia.
	March 4	1995 TAAC Men's Basketball Tournament: The Florida International Panthers beat the Mercer Bears in the final of a college basketball conference tournament in Orlando, Florida.
	March 5	1995 Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Tournament: The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers won the championship game of college basketball tournament in Little Rock, Arkansas.
		21st People's Choice Awards: An awards ceremony was held for American popular culture in Universal City, California.
		1995 Big South Conference Men's Basketball Tournament: The Charleston Southern Buccaneers won a college basketball conference tournament in Lynchburg, Virginia.
		1995 Southern Conference Men's Basketball Tournament: The Chattanooga Mocs won a college basketball conference tournament in Asheville, North Carolina.
	March 6	1995 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Tournament: The UMass Minutemen won the final of a college basketball tournament in Amherst, Massachusetts.
		1995 CAA Men's Basketball Tournament: The Old Dominion Monarchs won a college basketball conference championship game in Richmond, Virginia.
	March 9	Murder of Scott Amedure: Scott Amedure was murdered after confessing a homosexual attraction to an acquaintance on The Jenny Jones Show.
	March 11	1995 WAC Men's Basketball Tournament: The Utah Utes won a college basketball tournament in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
		1995 Big Sky Conference Men's Basketball Tournament: The Weber State Wildcats won a college basketball conference tournament in Ogden, Utah.
	March 12	1995 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament: The Villanova Wildcats won a college basketball conference tournament held in New York City.
		1995 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament: The Wake Forest Demon Deacons won the final of a college basketball tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina.
		1995 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament: The Kentucky Wildcats won a college basketball conference tournament held in Atlanta.
		1995 Purolator 500: Jeff Gordon won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Hampton, Georgia.
	March 17	1995 Lipton Championships: An outdoor hardcourt tennis tournament opened in Key Biscayne, Florida.
	March 18	1995 CCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament: The Lake Superior State Lakers won a college conference ice hockey tournament in Detroit.
		1995 ECAC Hockey Men's Ice Hockey Tournament: The RPI Engineers won a college conference ice hockey tournament in Lake Placid, New York.
		1995 Hockey East Men's Ice Hockey Tournament: The Boston University Terriers won a college conference ice hockey tournament in Boston.
		1995 WCHA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament: The Wisconsin Badgers won the final game of a college conference ice hockey tournament in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
	March 19	16th Youth in Film Awards: An awards ceremony was held for young actors and actresses in Los Angeles.
March 22	The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 was signed into law, restricting the federal imposition of unfunded mandates on state, local and tribal governments.
March 26	15th Golden Raspberry Awards: An event was held in Los Angeles to recognize the worst offerings of the film industry.
	1995 Nabisco Dinah Shore: Nanci Bowen won a women's golf tournament in Rancho Mirage, California.
March 27	67th Academy Awards: An awards ceremony for American cinema was held in Los Angeles.
March 28	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co. that a color can meet the legal requirements for trademark registration under the Lanham Act, provided that it has acquired secondary meaning in the market.
March 30	Murder of Deanna Cremin: Student Deanna Cremin was strangled in Somerville, Massachusetts.
March 31	Murder of Selena: Singer Selena was murdered by her fan and employee Yolanda Saldívar in Corpus Christi, Texas.
April 1	1995 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament: The Boston University Terriers won the championship game of a men's ice hockey tournament in Providence, Rhode Island.
April 2	1994–95 Major League Baseball strike: A strike by the Major League Baseball Players Association ended after a district court supported an unfair labor practices complaint of the National Labor Relations Board.
	1995 Food City 500: Jeff Gordon won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Bristol, Tennessee.
April 3	Gina Grant college admissions controversy: Harvard University rescinded the admission of an applicant found to have murdered her mother as a juvenile.
	1995 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Game: The UCLA Bruins won the championship game in men's college basketball in Seattle.
April 8	1995 Women's Pacific Rim Championship: The Canadian national team won a women's ice hockey tournament final in San Jose, California.
April 9	1995 Masters Tournament: Ben Crenshaw won a golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia.
	UFC 5: An Ultimate Fighting Championship event was held in Charlotte, North Carolina.
April 10	The Mexican Debt Disclosure Act of 1995 was signed into law. The Act required the president to submit a semiannual accounting of all financial instruments extended to Mexico on January 31 and granted Congress oversight over the future extension of such instruments.
	Democratic congressman Nathan Deal of Georgia's 9th congressional district switched parties to become a Republican.
April 14	1995 Marathon earthquake: An earthquake took place in western Texas.
April 15	Scott Irvin Chevrolet/Craftsman 200: Ken Schrader won a running of what is now the Camping World Truck Series in Santa Clarita, California.
April 17	Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 12958, creating new standards for the process of identifying and protecting classified information and establishing a review board, the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel.
April 18	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc. that Congress has no Constitutional authority to order federal courts to reopen final judgements.
April 19	Oklahoma City bombing: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed a federal government building in Oklahoma City, killing nearly two hundred.
	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Kyles v. Whitley that a prosecutor has an affirmative duty to disclose evidence favorable to a defendant.
	In a decision in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, the Supreme Court held that an Ohio law prohibiting anonymous political or campaign literature violated the First Amendment.
April 21	1995 Louis Vuitton Cup: Team New Zealand won a yacht race in San Diego, advancing to the America's Cup.
April 22	Ford Credit 125: Ron Hornaday, Jr. won a running of what is now the Camping World Truck Series in Bakersfield, California.
	1995 NFL Draft: A National Football League draft opened in New York City.
April 26	The Supreme Court held in a decision in United States v. Lopez that the possession of a handgun near a school is not an activity which Congress may regulate or prohibit under the Commerce Clause.
April 27	26th GMA Dove Awards: An awards ceremony was held in Nashville, Tennessee for Christian music.
April 30	1995 Southern Conference Baseball Tournament: The Citadel Bulldogs won the final game of a double-elimination college baseball conference tournament in Charleston, South Carolina.
5 May	1995 Mayfest Storm: A two-day storm began in and around Fort Worth, Texas which would kill thirteen people.
6 May	May 1995 tornado outbreak sequence: A tornado outbreak sequence began with a tornado in Wellington, Colorado.
	1995 Kentucky Derby: Thunder Gulch won a running of the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky.
8 May	May 1995 Louisiana flood: A flood began in and around New Orleans after heavy rainfall which would kill six people over the next two days.
	The District Court for the Southern District of Florida held in a decision in Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Starware Publishing Corp. that a copyright owner need not prove knowledge or intent on the part of the defendant to establish liability for direct copyright infringement.
11 May	One hundred seventy parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons including the United States agreed to extend it indefinitely.
13 May	1995 America's Cup: Black Magic beat Young America in a yacht race held in San Diego.
14 May	In Your House 1: A World Wrestling Federation event was held in Syracuse, New York.
	1995 Big West Conference Baseball Tournament: The Cal State Fullerton Titans won the final game of a double-elimination college baseball conference tournament in Long Beach, California.
15 May	1995 LPGA Championship: Kelly Robbins won a tournament of the Ladies Professional Golf Association in Wilmington, Delaware.
18 May	1995 Anderson Hills tornado: A tornado which touched down near Huntsville, Alabama killed one person.
	Premio Lo Nuestro 1995: An awards ceremony was held in Miami for Latin music.
19 May	1995 Big Ten Conference Baseball Tournament: The Ohio State Buckeyes won the final game of a double-elimination college baseball conference tournament in Columbus, Ohio.
20 May	1995 Preakness Stakes: Timber Country won a running of the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore.
	1995 Kids' Choice Awards: An awards ceremony for popular culture was held in Houston.
21 May	1995 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Tournament: The Florida State Seminoles won the final game of a double-elimination college baseball conference tournament in Greenville, South Carolina.
	1995 Southwest Conference Baseball Tournament: The Texas Tech Red Raiders won the final game of a double-elimination college baseball conference tournament in College Station, Texas.
22 May	The Supreme Court reached a decision in Wilson v. Arkansas in which it held that police officers must knock and announce before entering a house to serve a warrant.
	The Supreme Court held in a decision in First Options of Chicago, Inc. v. Kaplan that a court may review a contract in any circumstance where the parties have not clearly agreed to arbitration.
	In a decision in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, the Supreme Court held that states cannot impose qualifications for prospective members of Congress stricter than those specified in the Constitution, invalidating the term limit provisions of some twenty states.
	An amendment to the Paperwork Reduction Act was passed, extending the authority of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs over agency orders to provide information to the public.
27 May	May 1995 tornado outbreak sequence: The outbreak ended, after leaving thirteen dead across the country.
28 May	1995 Indianapolis 500: Jacques Villeneuve won a running of the Indianapolis 500 in Speedway, Indiana.
	1995 Coca-Cola 600: Bobby Labonte won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Charlotte, North Carolina.
29 May	1995 Great Barrington tornado: A tornado which touched down in Great Barrington, Massachusetts killed three.
31 May	1995 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships: A college track and field tournament began in which the Arkansas Razorbacks would top the men's standings and the LSU Lady Tigers the women's.
June 1	68th Scripps National Spelling Bee: Justin Tyler Carroll won a spelling bee in Washington, D.C.
	The United States and the United Kingdom defined their maritime border in the Caribbean Sea.
June 4	49th Tony Awards: An awards ceremony was held for Broadway theater.
	1995 Miller Genuine Draft 500: Kyle Petty won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Dover, Delaware.
June 5	Hurricane Allison: A hurricane made landfall in Florida which would cause some two million dollars in damage before dissipating six days later.
June 10	1995 MTV Movie Awards: An awards ceremony was held for American cinema.
	1995 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament: The Cal State Fullerton Titans won the final of a college baseball tournament in Omaha, Nebraska.
June 12	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peña that racial classifications established by the federal government must meet the same standard of strict scrutiny as classifications established by the states.
	The Supreme Court reached a decision in Missouri v. Jenkins in which it held that the remedies ordered by a district court to eliminate the de facto segregation of students in the Kansas City, Missouri School District, now Kansas City Public Schools, exceeded that court's authority.
June 14	1995 NBA Finals: The Houston Rockets defeated the Orlando Magic in the finals in four games, the last in Houston.
June 18	1995 U.S. Open: Corey Pavin won a U.S. Open golf tournament held in Shinnecock Hills, New York.
June 19	The Supreme Court reached a decision in Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Group of Boston in which it held that private citizens holding a public demonstration may not be compelled to include participants with whom they disagree.
June 21	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Florida Bar v. Went For It, Inc. that a Florida law prohibiting lawyers from reaching out to victims within the first thirty days after an accident did not violate the First Amendment.
	The Supreme Court reached a decision in Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton in which it held that random drug testing of student athletes by public schools serves a reasonable government interest and does not therefore violate the Fourth Amendment.
June 24	1995 Stanley Cup Finals: The New Jersey Devils defeated the Detroit Red Wings in the fourth game of the finals in East Rutherford, New Jersey, winning the series.
June 25	King of the Ring: A World Wrestling Federation event took place in Philadelphia.
	1995 U.S. Cup: The United States team won the final game of a soccer tournament in Piscataway, New Jersey.
June 26	Death of Jason Callahan: Jason Callahan was killed in a vehicle accident in Emporia, Virginia.
	Democratic congressman Greg Laughlin of Texas's 14th congressional district changed parties to become a Republican.
June 27	Miss Texas USA 1996: Kara Williams won a Miss Texas USA pageant in South Padre Island, Texas, advancing to the Miss USA pageant.
June 29	STS-71: The space shuttle Atlantis docked in orbit with the Russian space station Mir.
	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Capitol Square Review & Advisory Board v. Pinette that private religious expression in a public forum does not violate the Establishment Clause.
	In a decision in Miller v. Johnson, the Supreme Court held that obvious gerrymandering for the purposes of creating majority-minority Congressional districts violates the Equal Protection Clause.
	The Supreme Court reached a decision in Rosenberger v. University of Virginia in which it held that the University of Virginia's denying funds available to other student publications to a publication produced from a religious viewpoint did not uphold the Establishment Clause but in fact violated the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech.
	Sunrayce 95: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology won a solar car race from Indianapolis to Golden, Colorado.
July 1	1995 Special Olympics World Summer Games: A sporting contest for intellectually disabled athletes opened in New Haven, Connecticut.
July 11	The United States restored full diplomatic relations with Vietnam.
	Heat wave of 1995 derecho series: The first of a series of derechos appeared over Montana.
	1995 Major League Baseball All-Star Game: The National League beat the American League in an all-star game of Major League Baseball in Arlington, Texas.
July 12	1995 Chicago heat wave: A heat wave began in the Midwest which would kill more than seven hundred people in Chicago over the next four days.
July 13	Detroit newspaper strike of 1995–97: Employees of the newspapers the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News went on strike in protest of unfair labor practices.
July 14	UFC 6: An Ultimate Fighting Championship event was held in Casper, Wyoming.
July 15	1995 Total Petroleum 200: Butch Miller won a running of what is now the Camping World Truck Series in Erie, Colorado.
July 16	1995 Miller Genuine Draft 500: Dale Jarrett won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.
	1995 U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship: Annika Sörenstam won a golf tournament in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
July 21	11th TCA Awards: An awards ceremony for television was held in Pasadena, California.
July 29	1995 Women's U.S. Cup: The first game of a round robin women's soccer tournament took place in Worcester, Massachusetts.
July 30	Tropical Storm Dean: A tropical storm which would cause half a million dollars over the next three days made landfall in Texas.
July 31	1995 Toshiba Classic: A hardcourt tennis tournament opened in San Diego.
August 1	Murder of Charles Blankenship: Charles Blankenship was shot and killed on his neighbor's porch in Cincinnati.
August 2	Hurricane Erin: A hurricane made landfall in Florida which would cause some seven hundred million dollars in damage in the United States over the next four days.
	Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 12968, an executive order which standardized processes for granting federal employees access to classified information with a view to ending discrimination against homosexuals in granting such access.
August 5	1995 Brickyard 400: Dale Earnhardt won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Indianapolis.
August 7	1995 Thriftway ATP Championships: A men's hardcourt tennis tournament opened in which Andre Agassi would win the singles and Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde the doubles.
August 8	Democratic congressman Billy Tauzin of Louisiana's 3rd congressional district changed parties to become a Republican.
August 10	1995 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships: A swimming competition opened in Atlanta.
	1995 World Wrestling Championships: A wrestling contest opened in Atlanta.
August 13	1995 PGA Championship: Steve Elkington won a Professional Golf Association tournament in Los Angeles.
August 14	1995 Volvo International: A hardcourt tennis tournament opened in New Haven, Connecticut in which Andre Agassi would win the singles and Rick Leach and Scott Melville the doubles.
August 15	Miss Teen USA 1995: Keylee Sue Sanders won a beauty pageant held in Wichita, Kansas.
August 21	Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529: A commercial flight from Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Gulfport, Mississippi crashed in Carroll County, Georgia, killing nine.
August 23	Tropical Storm Jerry: A tropical storm made landfall at Jupiter, Florida which would kill six people.
August 24	Operation Vigilant Sentinel: The 74th Air Control Squadron deployed to Kuwait in response to the massing of Iraqi forces on the border.
August 25	First Roller In-line Hockey World Championship: The United States team won a roller in-line hockey championship game in Villa Park, Illinois.
August 26	1995 Little League World Series: The Little League team of Tainan won a Little League championship tournament in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
August 27	Hurricane Luis: A tropical depression, later a hurricane, formed in the Atlantic Ocean which would kill two people in the United States before dissipating some two weeks later.
	1995 U.S. Open Cup: The Richmond Kickers won the final match of a soccer tournament in El Paso, Texas.
August 28	Markale massacres: The Army of Republika Srpska (BPC) shelled an open-air market in Sarajevo, killing forty civilians.
	1995 US Open: An outdoor hardcourt tennis tournament opened in New York City.
August 30	Operation Deliberate Force: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began punitive airstrikes against BPC targets.
September 1	ArenaBowl IX: The Tampa Bay Storm defeated the Orlando Predators in the championship game of the Arena Football League.
September 3	1995 Mountain Dew Southern 500: Jeff Gordon won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Darlington County, South Carolina.
September 4	Fourth World Conference on Women: A UN conference on women's rights convened in Beijing.
September 5	Fourth World Conference on Women: First lady Hillary Clinton delivered a speech entitled Women's Rights Are Human Rights, criticizing state and cultural practices that cause harm to women.
September 7	1995 MTV Video Music Awards: An awards ceremony was held in New York City for music videos.
September 8	Murder of Michael Nigg: Waiter Michael Nigg was shot during a robbery in Los Angeles.
	UFC 7: An Ultimate Fighting Championship event was held in Buffalo, New York.
September 9	1995 Ms. Olympia: Lenda Murray won a women's bodybuilding contest in Atlanta.
September 10	1995 Mr. Olympia: Dorian Yates won a men's bodybuilding contest in Atlanta.
September 15	Fourth World Conference on Women: The conference ended. The participating states, including the United States, issued the Beijing Declaration committing themselves to take action to improve the status of women.
	Hurricane Marilyn: A hurricane made landfall in the United States Virgin Islands which would kill one person in Puerto Rico.
September 16	Miss America 1996: Shawntel Smith won a beauty pageant held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
September 17	Murder of Stephanie Kuhen: Members of the Avenues, a gang, shot into a vehicle in Los Angeles, killing a three-year-old girl.
September 20	Operation Deliberate Force: The operation was concluded following the withdrawal of BPC artillery from an area around Sarajevo.
September 22	Republican Party presidential primaries, 1996: Businessman Steve Forbes announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the presidency.
	1995 Alaska Boeing E-3 Sentry accident: An airborne early warning aircraft crashed near Elmendorf Air Force Base after colliding with birds on takeoff.
September 24	1995 Ryder Cup: The European team defeated the American team in a golf competition held in Pittsford (village), New York.
September 30	The 310th Air Refueling Squadron was inactivated.
October 1	Democratic congressman Mel Reynolds resigned his seat representing Illinois's 2nd congressional district after being convicted for crimes related to his sexual relationship with a minor.
	Republican senator Bob Packwood of Oregon resigned, under threat of expulsion, after it came to light that he had sexually harassed and assaulted numerous women.
October 2	1995 American League West tie-breaker game: The Seattle Mariners defeated the California Angels in a tiebreaker game in Seattle to advance to the American League Division Series.
	The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in a decision in Microsoft Corp. v. DAK Industries, Inc. that a software license agreement should be considered a lump sale of software units, making the licensor an unsecured creditor in the event of bankruptcy.
October 3	Mount Vision fire: A wildfire began on the Point Reyes National Seashore which would cause some six million dollars in damage over the next thirteen days.
October 4	Hurricane Opal: A hurricane made landfall in the Florida Panhandle which would kill thirteen Americans before dissipating two days later.
October 8	The Double: A double gave the Seattle Mariners a victory over the New York Yankees in the eleventh inning of a divisional game in Seattle, clinching the series.
October 9	1995 Palo Verde, Arizona derailment: A train was derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona, killing one.
October 10	Democratic congressman Norman Mineta of California's 15th congressional district resigned his seat.
October 12	Blackville-Hilda High School shooting: A student fatally shot a teacher before committing suicide at a high school in Blackville, South Carolina.
October 14	1995 National League Championship Series: The Atlanta Braves defeated the Cincinnati Reds in four games, the fourth in Atlanta, to advance to the World Series.
October 16	Million Man March: Several hundred thousand black men gathered in Washington, D.C. for a prayer event called by Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam and organized by the National African American Leadership Summit.
	Classical World Chess Championship 1995: Incumbent champion Garry Kasparov defeated challenger Viswanathan Anand after eighteen games of a twenty-game chess match in New York City.
October 17	1995 Skate America: A figure skating competition opened in Detroit.
	1995 American League Championship Series: The Cleveland Indians defeated the Seattle Mariners in Seattle in the sixth game of the series and advanced to the World Series.
October 23	Trial of Yolanda Saldívar: Saldívar was found guilty of first-degree murder in Selena's death.
October 25	1995 Fox River Grove bus–train collision: A train crashed into a stopped school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
October 28	1995 World Series: The Atlanta Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians in the World Series in six games, the sixth in Atlanta.
November 4	Northern Mariana Islands parliamentary expenses referendum, 1995: A referendum on increasing the budget of the legislature of the Northern Mariana Islands was rejected by voters.
November 7	United States gubernatorial elections, 1995: Gubernatorial elections were held in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi. The Democratic Party lost one seat.
	Houston mayoral election, 1995: Incumbent mayor Bob Lanier (politician) of Houston was reelected with eighty-three percent of the vote.
November 8	The Jerusalem Embassy Act, which calls for the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and for the American embassy to be moved to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, became law.
November 10	Democratic congressman Michael Parker (politician) of Mississippi's 4th congressional district changed parties to become a Republican.
November 12	American Airlines Flight 1572: A commercial flight from Chicago to Windsor Locks, Connecticut struck trees and an instrument landing system antenna on landing, causing some nine million dollars in damage to the aircraft.
	1995 NAPA 500: Dale Earnhardt won a running of what is now the Sprint Cup Series in Hampton, Georgia.
November 13	1995 WTA Tour Championships: A women's tennis tournament opened in New York City which would see Steffi Graf win the singles tournament and Jana Novotná and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario the doubles.
November 14	United States federal government shutdowns of 1995–1996: Nonessential operations of the federal government ceased after the failure of Clinton and the Congress to agree to a budget.
November 15	Richland High School shooting: Student James Rouse shot and killed one teacher and one student at a high school in Lynnville, Tennessee.
November 18	Louisiana gubernatorial election, 1995: Republican Murphy J. Foster Jr. was elected governor of Louisiana in a runoff election with sixty-four percent of the vote.
November 19	United States federal government shutdowns of 1995–1996: Clinton signed a short-term appropriations bill into law, ending the shutdown.
November 20	23rd International Emmy Awards: An awards ceremony was held in New York City for foreign television.
	The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held in a decision in Price v. United States that the government was exempt from suit under the principle of sovereign immunity, as it had not expressly waived its immunity in the particular tort of which it was accused under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
November 21	The District Court for the Northern District of California held in a decision in Religious Technology Center v. Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc. that an internet service provider or computer bulletin board service cannot automatically be held liable for acts of copyright infringement by its users.
November 22	Murder of Elisa Izquierdo: Six-year-old Elisa Izquierdo was beaten to death by her mother in New York City.
November 28	An act was signed into law which established the National Highway System and authorized federal grants to the states for its maintenance.
November 29	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Thompson v. Keohane that the question of whether a suspect is in police custody and must therefore be read a Miranda warning is a matter of law, and that, therefore, federal courts need not defer to state courts on this question as they must in matters of fact.
December 1	Democratic congressman Jimmy Hayes of Louisiana's 7th congressional district changed parties to become a Republican.
December 2	1995 SEC Championship Game: The Florida Gators defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks in a college football conference championship game in Atlanta.
December 5	In a decision in Things Remembered, Inc. v. Petrarca, the Supreme Court held that courts of appeals lack jurisdiction to review remand orders which remove a case from a federal to a state court.
December 6	The Supreme Court held in a decision in Bailey v. United States that the mere possession of a firearm did not constitute the use of the firearm under a commonly used section of Title 18 of the United States Code dealing with drug crime.
December 10	1995 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship: The Wisconsin Badgers won the final match of a college soccer tournament in Richmond, Virginia.
December 12	San Francisco mayoral election, 1995: Willie Brown (politician) defeated incumbent and fellow Democrat Frank Jordan to become mayor of San Francisco.
	Illinois's 2nd congressional district special election, 1995: An election was held to the House seat representing Illinois's 2nd congressional district, vacant after Reynolds's resignation. Democrat Jesse Jackson Jr. won with seventy-six percent of the vote.
	Republican Tom Campbell (California politician) was seated following a special election to Mineta's vacant House seat representing California's 15th congressional district.
December 14	Bosnian War: Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia signed the Dayton Agreement in Paris, ending the war.
	1995 Las Vegas Bowl: The Toledo Rockets defeated the Nevada Wolf Pack in a college football bowl game held in Whitney, Nevada.
December 15	Democratic congressman Walter R. Tucker III resigned to face trial for demanding bribes during his tenure as mayor of Compton, California.
December 16	United States federal government shutdowns of 1995–1996: The short-term spending bill expired without a deal on an annual budget, forcing nonessential operations of the government to again shut down.
	Ultimate Ultimate 1995: Dan Severn won a mixed martial arts tournament held in Denver.
December 19	The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, which requires the registration of lobbyists and the disclosure of lobbying activities, was signed into law.
December 22	The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, which increases the requirements for filing suit under securities law, was passed over Bill Clinton's veto.
December 25	1995 Aloha Bowl: The Kansas Jayhawks defeated the UCLA Bruins in a college football bowl game held in Honolulu.
December 27	1995 Copper Bowl: The Texas Tech Red Raiders defeated the Air Force Falcons in a college football bowl game in Tucson, Arizona.
December 28	1995 Alamo Bowl: The Texas A&M Aggies defeated the Michigan Wolverines in a college football bowl game in San Antonio.
	The Housing for Older Persons Act, which clarifies a portion of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 exempting senior housing from age discrimination requirements, was signed into law.
December 29	1995 Holiday Bowl: The Kansas State Wildcats defeated the Colorado State Rams in a college football bowl game in San Diego.
	1995 Sun Bowl: The Iowa Hawkeyes defeated the Washington Huskies in a college football bowl game in El Paso, Texas.
	The ICC Termination Act of 1995 was signed into law, abolishing the Interstate Commerce Commission and establishing the Surface Transportation Board effective January 1 to take on some of its functions.
	1995 Independence Bowl: The LSU Tigers defeated the Michigan State Spartans in a college football bowl game held in Shreveport, Louisiana.
December 30	1995 Liberty Bowl: The East Carolina Pirates defeated the Stanford Cardinal in a college football bowl game in Memphis, Tennessee.
	1995 Carquest Bowl: The North Carolina Tar Heels defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks in a college football bowl game in Miami Gardens, Florida.
	1995 Peach Bowl: The Virginia Cavaliers defeated the Georgia Bulldogs in a college football bowl game in Atlanta.
December 31	1995 Sugar Bowl: The Virginia Tech Hokies defeated the Texas Longhorns in a college football bowl game in New Orleans.
1996		TWA Flight 800: A flight exploded off Long Island, killing all 230 aboard.
		Khobar Towers bombing: A bombing left nineteen American servicemen dead in Saudi Arabia.
		Centennial Olympic Park bombing: A bombing in Atlanta killed one and injured 111.
	August 22	The Welfare Reform Act of 1996, replacing the AFDC with TANF, was signed into law.
		U.S. presidential election, 1996: Bill Clinton was reelected to a second term as President of the United States, defeating presidential candidates Bob Dole and Ross Perot.
		United States federal government shutdown of 1995 and 1996: The shutdown ended.
1997		Clinton banned federal funds from being used for human cloning research.
		Sparked by a global economic crisis scare, the Dow Jones Industrial Average followed world markets and plummeted 554.26, or 7.18%, to 7,161.15.
1998		Former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones accused Clinton of sexual harassment.
		Lewinsky scandal: Bill Clinton was accused of having a sexual relationship with 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.
		1998 U.S. embassy bombings: 224 were killed in bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.
		Gay college student Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered near the University of Wyoming.
1999		Dennis Hastert of Illinois becomes Speaker of the House of Representatives.
		The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,006.78.
	April 20	Two teenage students murdered 12 other students and 1 teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
		1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak: A violent tornado outbreak in Oklahoma killed fifty people and produced a tornado which caused $1 billion in damage.
		EgyptAir Flight 990: The first officer deliberately crashed a plane south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing 217.
		Along with the rest of the world, the United States prepared for the possible effects of the Y2K bug in computers, which was feared destined to cause computers to become inoperable and wreak havoc.
2000	October 12	USS Cole bombing: The USS Cole was bombed in Yemeni waters, killing seventeen United States Navy sailors.

21st century

Year	Date	Event
2001	January 20	First inauguration of George W. Bush: George W. Bush was inaugurated the forty-third President of the United States.
	June 7	The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 was signed into law by President George W. Bush.
	September 11	September 11 terrorist attacks: Nineteen terrorists hijacked four planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing 2,996 people and injuring over 6,000. Flight 93 was about to make a crash in Washington, D.C., but the passengers fought the terrorists until the plane crashed into the field.
	September 18	2001 Anthrax attacks: Anthrax attacks killed five and infected seventeen more through the mail system.
	October 7	War in Afghanistan: The United States launched an invasion of Afghanistan.
	October 26	The USA PATRIOT Act, increasing law enforcement agencies' ability to conduct searches in cases of suspected terrorism, was signed into law.
	November 12	American Airlines Flight 587: A flight crashed in Queens, New York, killing 265.
2002	June 13	The United States officially withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
	January 8	The No Child Left Behind Act education reform bill was signed into law.
	October 2–22	Beltway sniper attacks: Ten people were killed and three were injured in attacks around the Washington, D.C. area.
	November 25	The United States Department of Homeland Security was created.
2003	February 1	Space Shuttle Columbia disaster: The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
	February 17	2003 E2 nightclub stampede: A nightclub stampede in Chicago, Illinois killed twenty-one.
	February 20	The Station nightclub fire: A fire caused by pyrotechnics at a nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island killed 100 people and injured over 230.
	March 19	Invasion of Iraq: The United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq.
	December 13	Capture of Saddam Hussein: In Iraq, deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured by United States special forces.
2004	February 4	The social networking website Facebook was launched.
		2004 Atlantic hurricane season: Four deadly and damaging hurricanes impacted Florida, killing a combined one hundred people in the United States and producing over $50 billion in damage.
	November 2	U.S. presidential election, 2004; President George W. Bush was reelected.
2005	January 20	Second inauguration of George W. Bush: George W. Bush was inaugurated to his second term.
	August 23–30	Hurricane Katrina: A hurricane devastated the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama coastlines killing at least 1,836 people and causing $81 billion in damage.
2006	November 7	The Democratic Party regained control of both houses of Congress and gained control of a majority of state governorships.
2007	January 3	Democrat Nancy Pelosi became the first woman to become Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
	January 10	Iraq War troop surge of 2007: George W. Bush ordered the substantial increase of the number of United States troops in Iraq.
	April 16	Virginia Tech massacre: A South Korean student shot and killed thirty-two other students and professors before killing himself.
	August 1	The I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota collapsed, killing thirteen people.
	December	Late-2000s recession: A recession began.
2008	February 5–6	2008 Super Tuesday tornado outbreak: An outbreak of tornadoes killed over sixty people and produced $1 billion in damage across Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.
	September 1–14	Hurricane Ike: A hurricane killed 100 people along the Texas coast, producing $31 billion in damage and contributing to rising oil prices.
	July 11	Oil prices in the United States hit a record $147 per barrel.
		Global financial crisis in September 2008: The stock market crashed.
	September 14	Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers: Investment bank Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, the largest in U.S. history.
	November 4	U.S. presidential election, 2008: Barack Obama was elected the forty-fourth President of the United States.
2009	January 20	Inauguration of Barack Obama: Obama was inaugurated the forty-fourth President of the United States.
	February 17	President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus package.
		Tea Party protests: The first of a series of protests, focusing on smaller government, fiscal responsibility, individual freedoms and conservative views of the Constitution, were conducted across the country.
	June 25	Death of Michael Jackson: Pop icon Michael Jackson died.
	August 8	Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; becoming the first Latino Justice.
	November 5	Fort Hood shooting: Nidal Malik Hasan killed twelve servicemen and injured thirty-one.
2010	February 23	The United States Navy lifted its ban on women in submarines.
	March 23	The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama.
	April 20	Deepwater Horizon oil spill: The BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and spilling 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf over an 87-day period; being the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.
	July 21	The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law; establishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
	November 2	United States Senate elections, 2010: The Republican Party gained five seats, to forty-seven, reducing the Democratic presence in the Senate to fifty-one. Two seats remained in the hands of independents.
		United States House of Representatives elections, 2010: The Republican Party gained sixty-two seats, giving them an absolute majority of 242 in the House and reducing the Democratic presence to 193.
	November 28	United States diplomatic cables leak: WikiLeaks began to release classified diplomatic documents to the international press.
	December 22	The Senate ratified the New START treaty.
	December 22	The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 was signed into law, ending the Don't ask, don't tell policy regarding homosexuals in the United States Armed Forces.
2011	January 8	2011 Tucson shooting: A gunman targeting Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords critically injured Giffords and killed six others, including federal judge John Roll, in Tucson, Arizona.
	March 19	Operation Odyssey Dawn: The United States began air and cruise missile attacks against Libya.
	April 25–28	April 25–28, 2011 tornado outbreak: The largest tornado outbreak ever in United States history occurs in the American Midwest and Southern United States killing 348 People and causing 11 Billion Dollars in Damage.
	May 2	Death of Osama bin Laden: Al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden was killed by United States forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
	May 22	Joplin Tornado: An EF-5 tornado tore through Joplin, Missouri, killing 161, and causing $2.8 Billion in damage, including the destruction of a large portion of the main retail strip, a hospital, the high school, a middle school, and several elementary schools.
	August 2	United States debt-ceiling crisis: The Budget Control Act of 2011 was signed into law, increasing the legal limit on federal government debt in order to prevent default and establishing the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.
	August 5	United States federal government credit-rating downgrade, 2011: The credit-rating arm of Standard & Poor's reduced the rating of United States federal government debt from AAA to AA+.
	August 8	August 2011 stock markets fall: Major United States stock market indices dropped in value by some two and a half trillion dollars.
	September 17	The populist Occupy Wall Street protest movement made camp in Zuccotti Park in New York City.
	December 18	Withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq: The last United States troops withdrew from Iraq under the terms of the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement.
2012	September 11	2012 Benghazi attack: An attack that was coordinated against two United States government facilities in Benghazi, Libya by members of the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Sharia.
	October 25–30	Hurricane Sandy: A devastating hurricane wreaks havoc for the Eastern United States coast. There were many states severely impacted by the hurricane, especially New York and New Jersey, which took a direct hit from the storm.
	November 6	United States presidential election, 2012: Barack Obama is reelected as president.
	December 14	Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Occurs in Newtown, Connecticut killing 20 Children and 6 Staff Members in Sandy Hook Elementary School, perpetrated by a 20 Year Old, Adam Lanza.
2013	January 20	Barack Obama is inaugurated for his second term as president.
	April 15	Boston Marathon bombings: Two pressure cooker bombs explode during the Boston Marathon.
	June	Global surveillance disclosures: The revelations of the NSA's PRISM, Boundless Informant and XKeyscore domestic surveillance programs were first published by The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers.
2014	April 16	Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Flight MH370 of Malaysian airlines went missing and hasn't been seen since. Despite search efforts from the US and the rest of the world. 3 American citizens was on-board this flight.
	May 23	2014 Isla Vista killings occurs, killing 6, and wounding 14 others, perpetrated by elliot rodger.
	June	President Obama orders the return of a small number of troops to Iraq to help bolster Iraqi and Kurdish military forces in their war with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
	August 9	Michael Brown was shot and killed, in what was ruled by a grand jury to be self-defense, by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, igniting protests and riots in the following months.
	November 3	New building, 1 World Trade Center, opens in New York City.
	November 4	In national elections, Republicans take control of the U.S. Senate and maintaining a majority in the House of Representatives.
	December 17	President Obama announces a restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time since 1961.
2015	April 27	2015 Baltimore protests: Protests and rioting occur in Baltimore, Maryland after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody.
	June 17	Charleston church shooting: A gunman killed 9, including a state senator in a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
	June 26	Obergefell v. Hodges: Gay marriage is fully legalized in all 50 states.
	July 20	Restoration of relations with Cuba.
	December 2	2015 San Bernardino attack: Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married radical Muslim couple, kills 14 people at a center for the developmentally disabled.
2016	January 2	Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: an armed standoff in Oregon between armed anti-government militants and county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies takes place.
	June 11	2016 Orlando Nightclub Shooting: A self-proclaimed Islamic State fighter, Omar Mateen, kills 49 and injures 53 at a gay nightclub in Orlando, before being shot and killed by an officer.
	July 7	2016 shooting of Dallas police officers: Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed and fired upon a group of police officers in Dallas, Texas, killing five officers and injuring nine others. Two civilians were also wounded. Johnson was an Army Reserve Afghan War veteran who was reportedly angry over police shootings of black men and stated that he wanted to kill white people, especially white police officers. The shooting happened at the end of a peaceful protest against police killings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, which had occurred in the preceding days.
	August 12-22	2016 Louisiana floods: Prolonged rainfall in southern parts of the U.S. state of Louisiana resulted in catastrophic flooding that submerged thousands of houses and businesses. Louisiana's governor, John Bel Edwards, called the disaster a "historic, unprecedented flooding event" and declared a state of emergency.
	August 13	2016 Milwaukee riots: A riot began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sparked by the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith. During the three-day turmoil, several people, including police officers, were injured and dozens of protesters arrested.
	September 17–19	2016 New York and New Jersey bombings: Three bombs exploded and several explosive devices were found in the New York metropolitan area. The events occurred in Seaside Park, New Jersey; Manhattan, New York; and Elizabeth, New Jersey. On September 19, the sole suspect — Ahmad Khan Rahimi, of Elizabeth — was captured, following a shootout with police in the neighboring Linden, New Jersey. Rahimi's actions were allegedly influenced by the extremist Islamic ideology espoused by al-Qaeda.
	November 2	2016 World Series: The Chicago Cubs win the 2016 World Series for the first time since 1908, defeating the Cleveland Indians in seven games and ending the longest championship drought in North American sports history.
	November 8	United States presidential election, 2016: Donald Trump wins the 2016 presidential election, and becomes the forty-fifth president of the United States. The Republicans also regained the majority of both the House and Senate; an election in which the Republican candidate wins the election while the majority in Congress maintains a Republican control hasn't happened since the 1920s.
2017	January 20	Inauguration of Donald Trump, Donald Trump is inaugurated as the forty-fifth president of the United States

Further reading

• Hakim, Joy (2003). Making Thirteen Colonies. A History of US. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515322-7.