15,000 years ago Human traces in Los Angeles
The La Brea tarpit in Los Angeles shows signs of human activity in the region

1000 BC Ohio burial mounds
Burial mounds feature in the Ohio valley, built first in the Adena culture and then by Hopewell tribes

1540 Coronado explores north from Mexico
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado penetrates far north and west of Texas in an expedition searching for gold

1585 Settlers on Roanoke Island
Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, is settled by the first English colonists in America – with disastrous results

1585 White depicts American Indians
The English artist John White paints the everyday life of the Secotan Indians of America

1607 British settlers in Jamestown
Colonists establish the first lasting British settlement in the new world, at Jamestown

1608 Smith saved by Pocahontas?
John Smith claims (many years later) that when captured by Indians he was saved from execution by Pocahontas, daughter of the chief

1609 Hudson up his river
Henry Hudson reaches the inlet of New York Bay and explores the river now known by his name

1613 Pocahontas seized by Jamestown colonists
The American Indian princess Pocahontas is taken hostage by Jamestown colonists in the first Anglo-Powhatan war

1614 Pocahontas marries
Pocahontas is baptized a Christian and marries John Rolfe, one of the Jamestown colonists

1620 November 11 Pilgrims sign Mayflower Compact
Ten days after their first landfall, at Cape Cod, the adult males on the Mayflower agree a form of government for their new colony

1620 December 26 Settlers found a new Plymouth
The Pilgrims on the Mayflower select a place for their settlement, and give it the name of Plymouth, their port of departure in England

1620 History of Plimmoth Plantation
William Bradford begins a journal of the Pilgrims' experience in New England, subsequently published (in 1856) as History of Plymouth Plantation

1621 autumn Turkeys in Mayflower thanksgiving
The Mayflower settlers in Plymouth offer thanksgiving for their first harvest, eating turkeys in a celebration shared by local Indians

1621 Bradford is governor of Plymouth
William Bradford, one of the Pilgrims from the Mayflower, is elected governor of the new Plymouth Colony

1622 Jamestown at war with Indians
A sudden attack by Powhatan Indians, led by their chieftain Opechancanough against the English colony at Jamestown, results in the death of more than 300 settlers

1626 New Amsterdam on Manhattan
Peter Minuit purchases the island of Manhattan from local Indians and calls the place New Amsterdam

1630 Settlers choose Boston
John Winthrop selects the site of Boston for the first Massachusetts settlement

1630 Winthrop begins a journal
John Winthrop, arriving in Massachusetts, begins the journal that is eventually published as The History Of New England

1632 Maryland haven for Catholics
Maryland is granted to Lord Baltimore as a haven for English Roman Catholics

1633 Williamsburg founded in Virginia
Williamsburg, first known as Middle Plantation, is founded in Virginia

1636 Harvard university established
North America's first university is founded at Cambridge in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and soon receives a large bequest from John Harvard

1636 Religious freedom in Rhode Island
Rhode Island is founded by Roger Williams as a colony based on the principle of religious tolerance

1637 Pequot War
War between English colonists and Pequot Indians brings disaster to the Pequots but safeguards the settlement of Connecticut

1639 Massachusetts employs penny postman
Richard Fairbanks, given responsibility for delivering mail in Massachusetts, is allowed to charge a penny per letter

1640 Bay Psalm Book
The first book published in England's American colonies is Bay Psalm Book, a revised translation of the psalms

1647 Stuyvesant rules Dutch colony
Peter Stuyvesant begins a 17-year spell as director-general of the Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America

1664 Dutch yield New Amsterdam to British
Peter Stuyvesant accepts the reality of the military situation and yields New Amsterdam to the British without a shot being fired

1666 New Amsterdam becomes New York
New Amsterdam is renamed New York by the recently established English regime

1669 French have designs on Ohio valley
Robert de La Salle makes his first exploration of the Ohio valley, providing the basis for France's later claim to the area

1674 Sewall begins his diary
Samuel Sewall begins a diary of daily life in Boston, Massachusetts, that will span a period of more than fifty years

1675 Indian uprising in New England
A sudden uprising by the Wampanoag Indians against the new England settlements begins the conflict known as King Philip's War

1680 Pueblo Indians rise against Spanish
The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico rise against the Spanish, killing 21 missionaries and some 400 colonists

1681 Penn gets Pennsylvania
Charles II grants William Penn the charter for the region that becomes Pennsylvania, in settlement of a debt to Penn's father

1682 French claim whole length of Mississippi
Robert de la Salle travels down the Mississippi to its mouth and claims the entire region for France, naming it Louisiana

1682 Liberal Pennsylvania
William Penn approves the Great Law, allowing complete freedom of religious belief in Pennsylvania

1682 Penn in agreement with Indians
William Penn achieves peace for Pennsylvania by negotiating a treaty with the local Lenape (or Delaware) tribes

1683 Mennonites settle in Pennsylvania
Mennonites and other from Germany (later known as the Pennsylvania Dutch) begin to settle in Penn's liberal colony

1692 Talk of witches in Salem
The Massachusetts town of Salem is gripped by witch-hunting hysteria

1692 Salem witchcraft trials claim victims
Twenty people convicted of witchcraft are hanged in Salem, and one is pressed to death

1700 The Selling of Joseph
Boston merchant Samuel Sewall publishes The Selling of Joseph, a very early anti-slavery tract

1717 Mississippi valley to be developed
Scottish entrepreneur John Law establishes the Louisiana Company to develop the Mississippi valley for France

1722 Benjamin Franklin's 'Dogood Papers'
16-year-old Benjamin Franklin contributes the 'Dogood Papers', essays on moral topics, to a Boston journal, The New England Courant

1729 Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette
Benjamin Franklin prints, publishes and largely writes the weekly Pennsylvania Gazette

1731 America's first subscription library
Benjamin Franklin sets up a subscription library, the Library Company of Philadelphia

1732 Georgia haven for debtors
Georgia is granted to a group of British philanthropists, to give a new start in life to debtors

1733 Poor Richard's Almanac
Benjamin Franklin establishes the most successful of America's almanacs, publishing it annually until 1758

1735 Great Awakening
A revivalist movement in America, led by Jonathan Edwards, becomes known as the Great Awakening

1735 Zenger acquitted in landmark trial
John Peter Zenger, editor of the Weekly Journal, is acquitted of libelling the governor of New York on the grounds that what he published was true

1741 Two first American magazines
The American Magazine and the General Magazine both begin a short-lived existence

1741 Jonathan Edwards terrifies his congregation
American revivalism is inflamed by Jonathan Edwards' vivid sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

1743 America's first learned society
Benjamin Franklin drafts in Philadelphia the founding document for the American Philosophical Society

1744 Benjamin Franklin designs a stove
Franklin publishes his design for an improved stove in Account of the New Invented Pennsylvania Fire Place

1745 American militiamen capture Louisbourg
New England militiamen achieve an unexpected success in capturing the fortress of Louisbourg from the French

1749 French claim Ohio valley
A French official travels down the Ohio valley, placing markers to claim it for France

1752 French evict English from Ohio
The French seize or evict every English-speaking trader in the region of the upper Ohio

1752 Franklin attracts lightning
Benjamin Franklin flies a kite into a thunder cloud to demonstrate the nature of electricity

1753 Washington visits French in Ohio
George Washington undertakes a difficult and ineffectual journey to persuade the French to withdraw from the Ohio valley

1754 Edwards' Freedom of Will
In Freedom of Will American evangelist Jonathan Edwards makes an uncompromising defence of orthodox against liberal Calvinism

1754 Franklin uses cartoon to urge union
Benjamin Franklin's chopped-up snake, urging union of the colonies with the caption 'Join or Die', is the first American political cartoon

1754 On the Keeping of Negroes
Quaker minister John Woolman publishes the first part of Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes, an essay denouncing slavery

1754 Washington draws blood at Fort Duquesne
George Washington kills ten French troops at Fort Duquesne, in the first violent clash of the French and Indian war

1754 Franklin proposes government for colonies
Benjamin Franklin proposes to the Albany Congress that the colonies should unite to form a colonial government

1754 Iroquois and colonists parley
The British colonies negotiate with the Iroquois at the Albany Congress, in the face of the French threat in the Ohio valley

1755 British troops in America
A British force under Edward Braddock lands in America to provide support against the French in the Ohio valley

1755 Conestoga wagon
The first Conestoga wagons are acquired by George Washington for an expedition through the Alleghenies

1755 Braddock and Washington ambushed
The army led by Edward Braddock and George Washington is ambushed at Fort Duquesne and Braddock is killed

1756 Montcalm sorts out British
The French in America, under the marquis of Montcalm, begin two highly successful years of campaigning against the British

1761 Mount Vernon changes hands
George Washington, the future president, inherits Mount Vernon from his half-brother Lawrence

1763 French north America now British
In the treaty of Paris France cedes to Britain all its territory north of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi river, except the district of New Orleans

1763 Florida and Canada now British
In the treaty of Paris, Spain cedes Florida to Britain, completing British possession of the entire east coast of north America

1763 Pontiac leads Indian uprising
Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, leads an uprising of the Indian tribes in an attempt to drive the British east of the Appalachians

1765 Sons of Liberty oppose Stamp Act
American campaigners against the Stamp Act organize themselves as the Sons of Liberty in Massachusetts and New York

1767 Mason-Dixon Line established
Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon complete a four-year survey to establish the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland

1769 Serra establishes mission
Franciscan missionary Junipero Serra begins work at San Diego de Cala, the first of his nine California missions

1770 Boston Massacre
British troops fire into an unruly crowd in Boston, Massachusetts, killing five

1770 Jefferson builds himself a house
27-year-old Thomas Jefferson begins constructing a mansion on a hilltop in Charlottesville, calling it Monticello ('little mountain')

1773 Boston Tea Party
Some fifty colonists, disguised as Indians, tip a valuable cargo of tea into Boston harbour as a protest against British tax

1774 Boston's port is closed
As a retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, the British parliament closes Boston's port with the first of its Coercive Acts

1774 First Continental Congress
Delegates from twelve American colonies meet in Philadelphia and agree not to import any goods from Britain

1775 Boone blazes Wilderness Road
Pioneer Daniel Boone and other backwoodsmen cut the road west that will bring settlers to Kentucky

1775 'Give me liberty or give me death'
Patrick Henry makes a stirring declaration – 'Give me liberty or give me death' – to the Virginia Assembly

1775 Redcoats sent to Concord
General Gage sends a detachment of British troops to seize weapons held by American Patriots at Concord

1775 Revere rides some of the way
Paul Revere is one of the US riders taking an urgent warning to Concord, but he is captured on the journey

1775 Shot fired at Lexington
The first shot of the American Revolution is fired in a skirmish between redcoats and militiamen at Lexington, on the road to Concord

1775 Second Continental Congress
Delegates from the states reassemble in Philadelphia, with hostilities against the British already under way in Massachusetts

1775 Washington is American commander
Delegates in Philadelphia select George Washington as commander-in-chief of the colonial army

1775 Battle on Bunker Hill
At Bunker Hill, overlooking Boston from the north, the American militiamen prove their worth against British professional soldiers

1775 American colonists make a final bid for peace
Delegates to the Continental Congress make a final bid for peace, sending the Olive Branch Petition to George III

1775 British blockade America
Britain declares the colonies to be in a state of rebellion, and sets up a naval blockade of the American coastline

1775 Yankee Doodle
Yankee Doodle is the most popular song with the patriot troops in the American Revolution

1776 New American flag
George Washington raises on Prospect Hill a new American flag, the British red ensign on a ground of thirteen stripes – one for each colony

1776 Paine argues for Common Sense
In Common Sense, an anonymous pamphlet, English immigrant Thomas Paine is the first to argue that the American colonies should be independent

1776 Washington takes Boston
George Washington drives the British garrison from Boston, and moves south to protect New York

1776 Virginia wants independence
The revolutionary convention of Virginia votes for independence from Britain, and instructs its delegates in Philadelphia to propose this motion

1776 American colonies vote for independence
Virginia's motion for independence from Britain is passed at the Continental Congress of the colonies with no opposing vote

1776 Jefferson's Declaration adopted
Thomas Jefferson's text for the Declaration of Independence is accepted by the Congress in Philadelphia

1776 Hancock signs first
John Hancock is the first delegate to sign the Declaration of Independence, formally written out on a large sheet of parchment

1776 Washington loses New York
George Washington, driven from New York by the British, retreats towards Philadelphia

1776 Washington wins at Trenton
George Washington defeats the British at Trenton at a psychologically important moment in the course of the war

1777 Stars and stripes
Congress adopts a new flag for independent America – the stars and stripes

1777 Washington defeated at Brandywine
George Washington, heavily defeated in a battle at Brandywine, is forced to relinquish Philadelphia to the British

1777 Gates captures Burgoyne
The American general Horatio Gates captures the army of General Burgoyne near Saratoga

1777 US Articles of Confederation
The US Congress agrees the final version of the Articles of Confederation, defining the terms on which states join the Union

1778 Brook Watson and the Shark
In Brook Watson and the Shark John Singleton Copley creates the most intensely dramatic of his modern history paintings

1778 British troops leave Philadelphia
The British rapidly abandon Philadelphia on news of the expected arrival of a French fleet

1778 British in Georgia and South Carolina
The British adopt a new policy in the south, landing in Georgia and capturing much of South Carolina

1778 The Battle of the Kegs
Francis Hopkinson's popular ballad The Battle of the Kegs describes an ingenious American threat to the British navy

1780 Benedict Arnold's treachery
The capture of British go-between John André yields proof that US general Benedict Arnold is in the pay of the British

1780 André executed as spy
British army officer John André is executed in New York as a spy

1781 Maryland completes the original Union
Maryland, ratifies the Articles of Confederation (the last state to do so), completing 'the Confederation of the United States'

1781 Bank of North America
The Bank of North America is established by the Continental Congress to lend money to the fledgling Revolutionary government

1781 The British Prison Ship
US poet Philip Freneau describes in The British Prison Ship the horrors of his experiences as a prisoner

1781 Ann Lee tours New England
Ann Lee leads her Shaker colleagues in a missionary tour of New England lasting two years

1781 Cornwallis vulnerable at Yorktown
The British general Charles Cornwallis, isolated at Yorktown, is forced to surrender in the final engagement of the Revolutionary War

1783 Loyalists head north
Some 40,000 Loyalists flee from British America to the previously French colonies, in particular Nova Scotia

1783 Webster's Spelling Book
US lexicographer Noah Webster publishes a Spelling Book for American children that eventually will sell more than 60 million copies

1784 Franklin needs bifocals
Benjamin Franklin, irritated at needing two pairs of spectacles, commissions from a lens-grinder the first bifocals

1786 Philip Freneau's Poems
US author Philip Freneau publishes his first collection of poems, dating back to 1771

1786 Shay's Rebellion
Daniel Shays is the most prominent figure in a violent protest movement by farmers against the government of Massachusetts

1787 Northwest Ordinance
The Continental Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance, a plan for the establishment of new states north and west of the Ohio river

1787 Draft for US constitution
Delegates meeting in Philadelphia agree a final draft for a US consitution, to be submitted to the states for ratification

1787 Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers, in support of the Constitution and mainly written by Alexander Hamilton, begin appearing in New York

1788 USA acquires constitution
The constitution of the United States is ratified by the states, but it is immediately agreed that amendments will be desirable

1789 Washington for president – unanimous
George Washington, unanimously elected first president of the United States, is inaugurated on Wall Street in New York

1789 Hamilton is secretary of the treasury
Alexander Hamilton becomes secretary of the treasury in the administration of George Washington, whose federalist views he shares

1789 Olaudah Equiano
The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, a slave captured as a child in Africa, becomes a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic

1789 Dunlap's The Father
US painter and author William Dunlap has great success with his comedy The Father; or, American Shandyism

1790 Second Great Awakening
A second great revivalist movement sweeps northeast America, inspired by the earlier example of Jonathan Edwards

1790 Potomac site for capital
The Potomac is chosen as the navigable river on which the new US capital city will be sited

1790 Census in USA
The USA becomes the first nation to establish a regular census as a systematic check on the size of the population

1791 Bank of the United States
Under the guidance of Alexander Hamilton the First Bank of the United States is established in Philadelphia

1791 US army disaster at Maumee river
An Indian raid on an American military camp beside the Maumee river leaves more than 600 US soldiers dead

1791 Bill of Rights in USA
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, are ratified by the states

1792 Washington wins second term
George Washington is unanimously elected for a second term as president of the USA

1792 Federalists and Republicans in USA.
The first political parties, Hamilton's Federalists and Jefferson's Republicans, emerge in the USA

1793 Gin speeds cotton production
Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, enormously speeding up the process of separating cotton fibres from the seeds

1793 Start made on Capitol
George Washington lays the cornerstone for the Congress building on Capitol Hill

1793 Fugitive Slave Laws
The US Congress passes Fugitive Slave Laws, enabling southern slave owners to reclaim escaped slaves in northern states

1794 Whisky Rebellion put down with force
George Washington uses military force to assert government authority on rebels in Pennsylvania refusing to pay a federal tax on whisky

1795 American Indians cede Ohio
Indian tribes, at peace talks in Fort Greenville, cede much of Ohio to the USA

1795 Tecumseh insists on Indian rights
After the Fort Greenville concessions, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh emerges as a champion of Indian territorial rights

1796 The Hasty Pudding
US author Joel Barlow publishes his mock-heroic poem The Hasty Pudding, inspired by a dish eaten in 1793 in France

1796 Cherokee Indians to be 'civilized'
George Washington selects the Cherokee Indians for an experiment in adaptation to 'civilization'

1796 Washington's Farewell Address
George Washington, resisting pressure for him to accept a third presidential term, delivers a farewell address to guide the nation's future

1796 Adams and Jefferson in tandem
The election in the USA brings in a Federalist president (John Adams) and a Republican vice-president (Thomas Jefferson)

1798 Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland
US author Charles Brockden Brown publishes Wieland, the first of four novels setting Gothic romance in an American context

1798 Alien and sedition laws in USA
Controversial Alien and Sedition Acts are passed by the US Congress as emergency measures in response to the perceived threat of war with France

1800 Library of Congress
The Library of Congress, the US national library in all but name, is founded in Washington

1800 President moves into White House
US president John Adams moves into the newly completed White House, named for its light grey limestone

1800 Jefferson and Burr in dead heat
Republican Thomas Jefferson and Federalist Aaron Burr have an identical number of Electoral College votes in the US presidential election

1801 Jefferson is voted president
The US House of Representatives votes for Jefferson as president, after a dead heat between him and Burr in the Electoral College

1803 Louisiana Purchase
In the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson buys from Napoleon nearly a million square miles at a knock-down price, doubling the size of the USA

1804 Lewis and Clark expedition departs
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set off from St Louis to explore up the Missouri river and west to the coast

1804 Hamilton dies after duel with Burr
Alexander Hamilton is fatally wounded by a bullet to the head in a duel with his political adversary Aaron Burr

1804 Harmony Society in Pennsylvania
George Rapp and his followers establish a utopian community in Pennsylvania and call it Harmony

1805 Lewis and Clark reach Pacific
Lewis and Clark make their way through the Rockies and reach the Pacific

1806 Tecumseh's brother is the Prophet
Tecumseh's younger brother, Tenskwatawa, becomes known as the Shawnee Prophet

1806 Lewis and Clark safely back
Lewis and Clark get back to St Louis with a wealth of information about the unopened west of the continent

1807 Clermont on Hudson river
US engineer Robert Fulton launches a steamboat, the Clermont, on New York's Hudson river

1807 US introduces Embargo Act
Thomas Jefferson puts an embargo on US exports, hoping to damage the economy of France and Britain

1808 Astor founds American Fur Company
The German-born US entrepreneur John Jacob Astor establishes the American Fur Company

1808 Prophetstown founded
Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa set up a permanent base in Indiana, calling it Prophetstown

1808 Testimony of the Shakers
The Shakers define their Millennial laws in the Testimony of Christ's Second Appearing

1809 Irving hides behind Knickerbocker
Washington Irving uses the fictional Dutch scholar Diedrich Knickerbocker as the supposed author of his comic History of New York

1810 Vanderbilt's first step to fortune
16-year-old future millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt begins his career by establishing a ferry service to Manhattan

1811 National Road from Cumberland
Work begins at Cumberland in Maryland on the construction of America's National Road

1811 Astor's Astoria
John Jacob Astor establishes Astoria, a settlement on the Pacific coast to develop his fur trade with China

1811 Prophetstown destroyed
An American army attacks and destroys Tecumseh's base at Prophetstown

1812 British capture Detroit
The British capture Detroit in an early engagement of the War of 1812

1813 First use of Uncle Sam
The nickname Uncle Sam, supposedly based on the initials US, has its first recorded use in an issue of the Troy Post

1813 US naval success on Lake Erie
American warships win a victory over the British on Lake Erie, strengthening the US presence in the Great Lakes

1813 Tecumseh killed on British side
Tecumseh is killed fighting for the British against General Harrison east of Detroit in the Battle of the Thames

1814 British forces burn Capitol in Washington
British forces enter Washington, burning the Capitol and the president's new house

1814 The Star-Spangled Banner
US lawyer Francis Scott Key writes The Star-Spangled Banner after seeing the British bombard Fort McHenry

1814 New Harmony in Indiana
The Rappists establish a second American community, this time in Indiana, calling it New Harmony

1815 US victory over Britain near New Orleans
American volunteers under Andrew Jackson defeat British regulars near New Orleans, two weeks after peace has been agreed at Ghent

1816 American Colonization Society
Robert Finley, a US anti-slavery campaigner, founds the American Colonization Society to settle freed slaves in Africa

1817 Bryant's Thanatopsis
US poet William Cullen Bryant publishes Thanatopsis, written seven years previously at the age of 16

1817 New York Stock Exchange
An informal financial market on Wall Street is transformed into the New York Stock and Exchange Board

1817 First Seminole War
Andrew Jackson, attacking settlements in Spanish Florida, launches the first of three wars against the Seminole Indians

1818 49th parallel gets lasting role
The 49th parallel is agreed as the frontier between the USA and Canada

1819 USA acquires Florida
Spain sells Florida to the USA for $5 million, in return for the waiving of any American claim to Texas

1820 Rip Van Winkle wakes up
Washington Irving tells the story of the long sleep of Rip Van Winkle in his Sketch Book

1820 Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise, admitting Maine and Missouri to the union, keeps the balance between 'free' and 'slave' states in the US senate

1820 Longfellow's first published poem
7-year-old Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has a poem published in a newspaper in his home town of Portland, Maine

1821 Fenimore Cooper's The Spy
The Spy, a romance set in the American Revolution, establishes the reputation of US author James Fenimore Cooper

1821 National organization for Shaker communities
The Shaker settlements, now widespread in the US, form The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing

1821 Cherokee language written down
The spoken language of the Cherokee Indians is captured in written form – an achievement traditionally attributed to Sequoyah

1821 Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is launched in Philadelphia as a weekly to provide light Sunday reading

1821 Santa Fe Trail
The Sante Fe Trail, from Missouri to New Mexico, is opened up by the US trader William Becknell

1821 First American settlers in Texas
Stephen Austin begins the process of American settlement in the Mexican province of Texas

1823 Joseph Smith receives revelation
A heavenly being appears to Joseph Smith in New York state – an event which launches the Mormon church

1823 First of the Leather-Stocking Tales
James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers introduces Natty Bumppo, frontiersman known for his 'leather stockings'

1823 A Visit from St Nicholas
An American poem, A Visit from St Nicholas, describes in every detail the modern Santa Claus

1823 Monroe warns Europe – keep out
US president James Monroe warns European nations against interfering in America, in the policy which becomes known as the Monroe Doctrine

1824 Republican party splits in USA
The Republican party in the USA splits into National Republicans and Democratic Republicans

1825 Erie Canal completed
Work begins on the 363-mile Erie Canal that will link the Hudson River to Lake Erie

1825 Robert Owen takes on New Harmony
The English socialist Robert Owen purchases New Harmony from the Rappists, to test his utopian theories in a new context

1826 The Last of the Mohicans
In James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, Natty Bumppo sides with a Mohican chief

1827 Kaaterskill Falls
With Kaaterskill Falls 26-year-old Thomas Cole pioneers a heroic tradition in US landscape painting

1828 New Harmony is disbanded
After little more than two years of quarrelsome existence, Robert Owen's community at New Harmony comes to an end

1828 Webster's Dictionary
Connecticut lexicographer Noah Webster publishes the definitive 2-volume scholarly edition of his American Dictionary of the English Language

1828 Cherokee adopt American-style constitution
The Cherokees adopt an American-style constitution and publish the first American-Indian newspaper

1828 Suffrage for white males in USA
Adult white males now have the vote in almost all the states of the USA

1828 Andrew Jackson is elected US president
Andrew Jackson, elected president of the USA, introduces the era known as Jacksonian democracy

1829 Poe's Al Aaraaf
20-year-old Edgar Allan Poe publishes Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems

1829 Cherokee assembly banned
The state government of Georgia declares that it is illegal for for the Cherokees to hold political assemblies

1830 Underground Railroad for slaves
A network of undercover abolitionists in the southern states of America help slaves escape to freedom in the north

1830 Old Ironsides saved by a poem
Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem 'Old Ironsides' prompts a public response that saves the frigate from the scrapyard

1830 Indian Removal Act passed by congress
Congress passes the Indian Removal Act, to push the American Indian tribes west of the Mississippi

1830 Book of Mormon published
The Book of Mormon, translated from miraculously discovered holy tablets, is published by their finder Joseph Smith

1831 America is sung at Fourth of July meeting
Samuel Francis Smith's patriotic hymn America is sung for the first time on July 4 in Boston

1831 The Last Leaf
Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem The Last Leaf is inspired by an aged survivor of the Boston Tea Party

1831 Nat Turner's Uprising
Nat Turner leads a revolt by fellow slaves in Southampton County, Virginia, killing 59 whites and provoking more repressive legislation

1831 Another Great Revival in USA
Evangelical preacher Charles Grandison Finney leads a new wave of revivalism in the northeastern states

1832 Cholera epidemic in USA
The USA suffers the first of several cholera epidemics, spanning the sixty years to 1892

1833 American Anti-Slavery Society
Under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison a society is formed in the USA calling for the immediate abolition of slavery

1833 Sun in New York
Benjamin Henry Day establishes a new penny daily in New York, the Sun, which lasts until 1966

1833 Rail travel in USA
The first long-distance US railway, in South Carolina, carries its first passengers

1834 Whigs oppose 'King Andrew'
The opponents of US president Andrew Jackson, mockingly called King Andrew, become known as the Whig party

1834 Guy Rivers
American novelist William Gilmore Simms publishes Guy Rivers, the first of his series known as the Border Romances

1835 Moon hoax boosts Sun circulation
The New York Sun gains new readers with a convincing report that astronomer John Herschel has observed men and animals on the moon

1835 Hudson River School
A school of landscape painting emerges in New York, with emphasis on the scenery of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains

1835 The Partisan
The Partisan, set in South Carolina, launches the series of novels by William Gilmore Simms known as the Revolutionary Romances

1836 Texas declares independence
The inhabitants of the Mexican province of Texas declare their independence as a new republic

1836 Davy Crockett holds out briefly in Alamo
200 Texans, among them Davy Crockett, hold out for twelve days in San Antonio before being killed in the Alamo by a Mexican army

1836 Grimké sisters join battle
Sarah and Angelina Grimké join the abolitionist crusade, each publishing a powerful anti-slavery pamphlet in the same year

1836 Sam Houston wins Texas
Sam Houston destroys a Mexican army near the San Jacinto river, completing the seizure of Texas from Mexico

1836 Emerson defines Transcendentalism
In his essay, Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson sets out the fundamentals of the philolosphy of Transcendentalism

1837 The American Scholar
In The American Scholar Ralph Waldo Emerson urges his student audience to heed their own intellectuals rather than those of Europe

1837 Degrees for women at Oberlin
Oberlin College in Ohio becomes the first in the USA to enrol women as degree students

1838 Morse's electric telegraph
US inventor Samuel Morse gives the first public demonstration, in Philadelphia, of his electric telegraph

1838 Indian tribes displaced in Great Removal
Five American Indian tribes are forcibly escorted to a new Indian Territory west of the Mississippi in the process that becomes known as the Great Removal

1838 Birds of America
John James Audubon completes publication of the 435 plates forming his 4-volume Birds of America

1838 Wilkes Expedition
US naval officer Charles Wilkes leads a four-year exploration of the Antarctic and Pacific, proving on the way that Antarctica is a continent

1838 Emerson challenges conventional Christianity
In his Divinity School Address, delivered at Harvard, Ralph Waldo Emerson criticizes formal religion and gives priority to personal spiritual experience

1838 Hawthorne's Fanshawe
US author Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes Fanshawe, his first novel, at his own expense

1839 Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe publishes a characteristically gothic tale, The Fall of the House of Usher

1839 Mutiny on the Amistad
Mutiny by slaves on a Spanish vessel leads two years later to a significant abolitionist victory in the Amistad case