| Term | Definition |
| 1492 | Columbus sets sail |
| 1519 | Hernan Cortes conquers Aztecs |
| 1532 | Francisco Pizarro conquers Incas |
| 1587 | Walter Raleigh founds Roanoke |
| 1607 | Jamestown is founded |
| 1608 | Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec |
| 1619 | John Rolfe brings slaves and tobacco to virginia |
| 1619 | House of Burgesses |
| 1620 | Pilgrims found Plymouth |
| 1629 | Puritans found Massachusetts |
| 1632 | Lord Baltimore founds Maryland |
| 1642 | English Civil War begins |
| 1660 | Navigation Acts |
| 1664 | New Netherlands becomes New York |
| 1675 | King Philip's War |
| 1676 | Bacon's Rebellion |
| 1680 | Pueblo Revolt |
| 1688 | Dominion of New England |
| 1689 | Glorious Revolution |
| 1692 | Salem Witch Trials |
| 1739 | First Great Awakening |
| 1739 | Stono Rebellion |
| 1741 | New York Rebellion |
| 1754 | French and Indian War |
| 1760 | Peace of Paris |
| 1763 | Proclamation Line |
| 1764 | Sugar Act |
| 1765 | Stamp Act |
| 1766 | Stamp Act Repeadled |
| 1767 | Townshend Revenue Act |
| 1769 | Boston Massacre |
| 1774 | First Continental Congress |
| 1774 | Intolerable Acts |
| 1775 | Battle of Lexington & Concord |
| 1775 | Second Continental Congress |
| 1776 | Declaration of Independence |
| 1777 | Battle of Saratoga |
| 1781 | Articles of Congfederation |
| 1781 | Battle of Yorktown |
| 1783 | Peace of Paris |
| 1786 | Shays' Rebellion |
| 1787 | Constitutional Convention |
| 1789 | Constitution Ratified |
| 1789 | George Washington assumes Presidency |
| 1789 | Judiciary Act |
| 1793 | Execution of Louis XVI |
| 1794 | Treaty of Greenville |
| 1794 | Whiskey Rebellion |
| 1795 | Jay's Treaty |
| 1795 | Pinckney's Treaty |
| 1797 | John Adams assumes Presidency |
| 1798 | Alien and Sedition Acts |
| 1798 | Quasi War |
| 1798 | Virginia and Kentucky Revolution |
| 1798 | XYZ Affair |
| 1801 | John Marshal appointed Chief Justice |
| 1801 | Thomas Jefferson assumes Presidency |
| 1803 | Louisiana Purchase |
| 1803 | Marbury v. Madison |
| 1807 | Embargo Act |
| 1807 | Sinking of the Chesapeake |
| 1809 | James Monroe assumes Presidency |
| 1809 | Non-intercourse Act |
| 1810 | End of 1st Bank of the United States |
| 1811 | Macon's Bill #2 |
| 1811 | Warhawks obtain congressional majority |
| 1814 | Treaty of Ghent |
| 1815 | Battle of New Orleans |
| 1815 | Hartford Convention ends the First Party System |
| 1816 | American System |
| 1817 | James Monroe assumes Presidency |
| 1819 | Adams-Onis Treaty |
| 1819 | McCulloch v. Maryland |
| 1819 | Panic of 1819 |
| 1820 | Missouri Compromise |
| 1823 | Monroe Doctrine |
| 1824 | Gibbons v. Ogden |
| 1825 | John Quincy Adams assumes Presidency |
| 1828 | Tariff of Abominations |
| 1829 | Andrew Jackson assumes Presidency |
| 1830 | Indian Removal Act |
| 1831 | Cherokee Nation v. Georgia |
| 1832 | Jackson vetoes Bank re-charter |
| 1832 | Worcester v. Georgia |
| 1833 | Compromise of 1833 |
| 1836 | Texas War of Independence |
| 1837 | Martin Van Buren assumes Presidency |
| 1837 | Panic of 1837 |
| 1838 | Trail of Tears |
| 1841 | John Tyler assumes Presidency |
| 1841 | William Henry Harrison assumes Presidency |
| 1844 | Samuel Morse invents telegraph |
| 1844 | Texas joins Union |
| 1846 | Oregon Treaty |
| 1846 | Wilmot Proviso introduced |
| 1846 | Mexican American War |
| 1848 | Gold is discovered in California |
| 1848 | Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo |
| 1849 | Zachary Taylor assumes Presidency |
| 1850 | Compromise of 1850 |
| 1850 | Millard Fillmore assumes Presidency |
| 1852 | Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| 1853 | Franklin Pierce assumes Presidency |
| 1854 | Kansas-Nebraska Act |
| 1855 | Bleeding Kansas |
| 1857 | Dred Scott v. Sandford |
| 1857 | James Buchanan assumes Presidency |
| 1858 | Lincoln-Douglas debates |
| 1859 | Raid on Harper's Ferry |
| 1860 | South Carolina begins Secession Winter |
| 1861 | Abraham Lincoln assumes Presidency |
| 1861 | Fort Sumter begins Civil War |
| 1863 | Battle of Gettysburg |
| 1863 | Lincoln attempts 10% Plan |
| 1865 | Lincoln's second inaugural address |
| 1866 | Radical Republicans achieve a veto-proof majority |
| 1867 | House impeaches Johnson |
| 1867 | Reconstruction Act |
| 1869 | Ulysses S. Grant assumes Presidency |
| 1870 | The last Southern state reenters the union |
| 1871 | KKK Act |
| 1874 | Democrats win a majority in the House of Representatives |
| 1877 | Rutherford B. Hayes assumes Presidency, ending Reconstruction |