10 Towns that Changed America | Timeline
Congress ratifies the Bill of Rights.
1791Tenements are constructed in New York City.
Circa 1830sGold is discovered in California.
1848Dred Scott sues for his freedom and loses.
1857The American Civil War begins. The Virginia State Capitol (shown here in 1865) houses the Confederate government alongside the Virginia State Assembly.
1861The Civil War ends; Abraham Lincoln is assassinated.
1865The Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, completing the Transcontinental Railroad.
1869Much of Chicago is destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire.
1871Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.
1879The Statue of Liberty is dedicated.
1886The Wright Brothers achieve the first powered air flight.
1903Henry Ford introduces the Model T automobile.
1908The Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic Ocean.
1912The Panama Canal is completed.
1914Women gain the right to vote.
1920Charles Lindbergh flies across the Atlantic Ocean.
1927The stock market crashes.
1929Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.
1941“D-Day”: Allies invade Normandy, France.
1944The U.S. drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
1945A ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education desegregates schools.
1954Russia launches the Sputnik satellite.
1957John Glenn orbits Earth in the “Friendship 7” Mercury spacecraft.
1962President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
1963The U.S. lands on the moon.
1969Richard M. Nixon resigns.
1974The Vietnam War ends.
1975The Iran Hostage crisis begins.
1979The Eastern Bloc dissolves.
1989The World Trade Center is attacked.
2001The U.S. invades Iraq.
2003