American History Reference Sheet

Jamestown, Virginia (1607)

To practice their religious beliefs freely, separating from the Church of England

An agreement among Pilgrim settlers to create a self-governing community based on majority rule

Royal, proprietary, and charter

A religious revival movement in the 1730s-1740s emphasizing personal conversion and emotional faith

Key figures include Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield

The first representative legislative assembly in the American colonies, established in Virginia

An economic policy where colonies existed to enrich the mother country through trade restrictions

Colonists protested being taxed by Parliament while having no elected representatives there

Colonists disguised as Mohawks dumped 342 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act

July 4, 1776

Thomas Jefferson

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Turning point that brought French alliance

Yorktown, Virginia (1781) — Cornwallis surrendered to Washington

A pamphlet arguing for American independence, written in plain language that persuaded many colonists

The Articles of Confederation were too weak — the national government lacked power to tax or regulate commerce

Legislative, Executive, Judicial

Each branch of government can limit the powers of the other branches, preventing any one from becoming too powerful

Created a bicameral legislature: Senate (equal representation) and House (proportional representation)

Enslaved persons were counted as three-fifths of a person for representation and taxation purposes

The first ten amendments to the Constitution, protecting individual liberties

Freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition

Essays by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay arguing for ratification of the Constitution

The U.S. bought 828,000 square miles of territory from France, doubling the nation's size

A belief many Americans used to argue that expansion across the continent was justified, inevitable, and providential

The forced relocation of Cherokee and other Native American nations from the Southeast to Indian Territory in the 1830s, causing severe hardship and many deaths

Admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as free, drawing a line at 36°30' dividing slave and free territory

Explored the Louisiana Territory to the Pacific Ocean (1804-1806), mapping the land and documenting its people and resources

Spain ceded Florida to the United States, and the two nations agreed on a western boundary for U.S. territory

A federal law used to move Native American nations from eastern homelands to lands west of the Mississippi, often through pressure or force

It was a major overland route that carried many migrants from the Missouri River region toward Oregon Country in the 1840s

Texas entered the Union as a slave state, sharpened sectional debate, and helped trigger a boundary dispute with Mexico

It ended the Mexican-American War; Mexico ceded California, New Mexico, and other western lands to the United States

After gold was found in 1848, large numbers of migrants rushed to California, speeding settlement and California statehood

It admitted California as a free state, addressed western territorial slavery by popular sovereignty, settled Texas's boundary, and strengthened the fugitive slave law

It repealed the Missouri Compromise line and let settlers decide slavery by popular sovereignty, leading to conflict in Kansas

Slavery, states' rights, economic differences between North and South, and the question of slavery's expansion

Firing on Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861)

Declared enslaved persons in Confederate states to be free, reframing the war as a fight against slavery

The 13th Amendment later abolished slavery entirely

The bloodiest battle and a turning point — Lee's failed invasion of the North ended Confederate momentum

Ulysses S. Grant

Appomattox Court House, Virginia (April 9, 1865)

Lincoln's brief but powerful speech dedicating the Gettysburg cemetery, redefining the war as a struggle for equality and democratic self-government

The 13th Amendment (1865)

The period (1865-1877) when the United States rebuilt the Union, readmitted former Confederate states, and debated citizenship and rights after emancipation

Citizenship for persons born or naturalized in the United States, due process, and equal protection under the law

Voting rights could not be denied because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude

State and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the South after Reconstruction

The Compromise of 1877 resolved the disputed 1876 election for Rutherford B. Hayes, and federal troops were withdrawn from the South

A federal agency created in 1865 to assist formerly enslaved persons and refugees with food, schools, labor contracts, and legal help

Southern laws after the Civil War that restricted the freedom, labor, and movement of formerly enslaved persons

Congress required stronger protections for freed persons, new state constitutions, and federal oversight before former Confederate states returned fully to the Union

They placed most former Confederate states under military districts and required new constitutions, Black male suffrage, and ratification of the 14th Amendment

Many freed persons lacked land and capital, so they farmed land owned by others for a share of the crop, often becoming trapped in debt

African American voters and leaders helped shape state governments and Congress, including figures such as Senator Hiram Revels

They gave the federal government power to protect voting rights and respond to violent intimidation against Black citizens and their allies

It tested whether emancipation would become equal citizenship in law and public life, leaving questions that shaped later civil-rights struggles

Unrestricted German submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram proposing a German-Mexican alliance

President Wilson's principles for peace after WWI, including self-determination and a League of Nations

A severe worldwide economic downturn beginning with the 1929 stock market crash, lasting through the 1930s

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941

Allied invasion of Normandy (June 6, 1944)

The U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (Aug 6) and Nagasaki (Aug 9, 1945); Japan surrendered

A series of government programs and reforms (1933-1939) to provide relief, recovery, and reform during the Great Depression

A geopolitical struggle between the U.S. and Soviet Union (1947-1991) fought through proxy wars, arms races, and ideological competition

The U.S. strategy to prevent the spread of communism to new countries

A conflict where U.S.-led UN forces defended South Korea against communist North Korea and Chinese forces

A 13-day confrontation when the U.S. discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba — the closest the world came to nuclear war

Preventing communist unification of Vietnam

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989

School segregation unconstitutional; overturned 'separate but equal'

In 1955, she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking a bus boycott

Nonviolent civil disobedience and peaceful protest, inspired by Gandhi and Christian principles

Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public places and employment

Prohibited racial discrimination in voting and eliminated literacy tests and other barriers

A massive rally of over 200,000 people where MLK delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech at the Lincoln Memorial

Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon killed nearly 3,000 people and led to the War on Terror

Apollo 11 made the U.S. the first nation to land humans on the moon, a triumph in the Space Race with the Soviet Union

Nixon cover-up scandal leading to resignation (1974)

He pursued a military buildup, challenged the Soviet Union directly, and negotiated arms reduction treaties

It ended the national-origins quota system and emphasized family reunification and needed skills, reshaping immigration to the United States

A 1978 agreement brokered by President Jimmy Carter that led to the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel

Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held American hostages for 444 days, testing U.S. diplomacy and public trust

A U.S.-led international coalition, backed by the United Nations, forced Iraqi troops out of Kuwait after Iraq's 1990 invasion

The North American Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force in 1994, reduced trade barriers among the United States, Canada, and Mexico

A disputed Florida recount reached the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, showing how election law, courts, and the Electoral College can shape a close election

The Department of Homeland Security, bringing many security, border, transportation, and emergency functions into one cabinet department after 9/11

A severe 2007-2009 economic downturn linked to financial and housing-market crises, followed by a long and uneven recovery

Academic and government-backed networks grew into a commercial internet that changed news, commerce, learning, social life, and civic debate