THESE TIMELINES WERE BEGUN FOR MY OWN PERSONAL USE. THESE TIMELINES SHOULD NOT BE USED AS RESOURCES FOR ANY KIND OF RESEARCH PAPER. THESE TIMELINES SHOULD ONLY BE USED AS AN AID TO GIVE A "JUMPING OFF POINT." THESE TIMELINES ARE NOT PEER-REVIEWED; THEREFORE, THEY ARE SUBJECT TO ANY NUMBER OF UNINTENTIONAL AUTHORIAL TYPING ERRORS AND/OR MISUNDERSTANDINGS. REMEMBER, INTERNET SOURCES (WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS) CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS DEFINITIVE SOURCES!!

Because I did these timelines initially only for my own personal use, I have paraphrased and quoted without citing as one should for a research paper; therefore, anyone using these timelines should consult the sources listed on the Historical Timelines Page.

DO NOT QUOTE FROM THESE TIMELINES!! ALWAYS DOUBLE-CHECK MY WORK!!!!

American/U.S.:

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) Spanish explorer

Columbus sails and first discovers islands in West Indies 1492

Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) Italian navigator

Amerigo discovers American mainland in 1499-1500

Vasco Nunez de Balboa (1475-1519) Spanish explorer of Colombia

Francisco Pizarro (1475?-1541) Spanish conqueror of Peru (Incas)

Hernando Cortes (1485-1587) Spanish explorer/conqueror of Mexico

John Cabot explores Newfoundland and New England 1497-1498

Vasco da Gama finds water route to India 1497-1499

Balboa sees Pacific Ocean 1509-1513

Ponce de Leon explores Florida 1513

Cortes conquers Mexico (Aztecs) 1519

Magellan circumnavigates the world 1519-1522

Powhatan (Wahunsenacawh) (1550?-1618) Chief of federation of Algonquian tribes, father of Pocahontas

Captain John Smith (1580?-1631) American colonist; helps found Jamestown in 1607.

James Winthrop (1588-1649) American colonist; becomes 1^st governor of Massachusetts in @1629-1631

William Bradford (1590-1657) Colonist of Plymouth

Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) American religious leader (in America 1634-1643)

Pocahontas (Matoaka)(1595?-1617)BNative American princess, said to have saved Captain John Smith=s life from her father, Powhatan, in 1608Beventually married an Englishman, died in England

Roger Williams (1603?-1683) American clergyman; founder of tolerant Providence, R.I.

Colonial Period (1607-1765)

Settlement of Jamestown, VA (1607)

de Champlain founds Quebec (1608)

Hudson explores Hudson River (1609)

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) Poet

Slavery Introduced in Virginia (1619)

Mayflower arrives at Cape Cod, MA in 1620 and establishes Plymouth Colony on coast of Massachusetts

1^st Thanksgiving in 1621BWilliam Bradford

Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630)

Harvard College Founded (1636)

Providence, Rhode Island (1636)

Pequot War North American British colonists vs. Pequot IndiansBthe Pequot of Connecticut and Rhode Island are almost completely wiped out) (1637)

Increase Mather (1639-1723) Writer/Preacher

1^st Printing Press in America (Cambridge) (1639)

William Penn (1644-1718) Religious reformer; Colonist of Pennsylvania

Quakers in Massachusetts (1656)

Cotton Mather (1663-1728) Writer/Preacher

Hudson Bay Company (1670)

LaSalle explores Mississippi River (1679-1683)

Penn settles Pennsylvania (1682)

Church of England worship established in Boston (1687)

French and Indian Wars (French and Indians vs. British in North America) (1689-1763)

King William=s War (1689-1697)

Queen Anne=s War (1702-1713)

King George=s War (1744-1748)

French and Indian War (1754-1763)

Salem Witchcraft Executions (1692)

Queen Anne=s War (1702-1713)

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Statesman/Scientist/Philosopher (born in Massachusetts)

Samuel Adams (1722-1803) Revolutionary (born in Massachusetts)

Daniel Boone (1734?-1820) Pioneer

John Adams (1735-1826) Revolutionary

Patrick Henry (1736-1799) Revolutionary

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) Author/Political philosopher

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Statesman/Author (born in Virginia)

King George=s War (1744-1748)

French and Indian War (1754-1763)

Red Jacket (1756?-1830) chief of Senecas

Noah Webster (1758-1843) Author/lexicographer

REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD (1765-1830)

Revolutionary Age (1765-1790)

William Clark (1770-1838) soldier/explorer

Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773)

First Continental Congress in Philadelphia (September 5, 1774)

Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) American explorer

Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia (May 10, 1775)

Paine=s Common Sense (1776)

Smith=s Wealth of Nations (1776)

American Revolution (1775-1781)

Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)

France recognized the colonies in 1777. An alliance with France in 1778. Brits capture Savannah on December 29, 1778.

1779-Spain joins war vs. England. September 23, 1779-Benedict Arnold=s plot to surrender West Point to the Brits was revealed. British Cornwallis surrenders on October 19, 1781 in Virginia. Treaty of Paris is signed on September 3, 1783.

Treaty of Paris (1783)

Articles of Confederation (1777)

Ratified (1781)

Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) Poet

Washington Irving (1783-1859) Author

Davy Crockett (1786-1836) Frontiersman, died at Alamo

Constitutional Convention (1787)

Thirteen Original Colonies are:

Delaware (Dec. 7, 1787), Pennsylvania (Dec. 12, 1787), New Jersey (Dec. 18, 1787), Georgia (Jan. 2, 1788), Connecticut (Jan. 9, 1788), Massachusetts (Feb. 6, 1788), Maryland (Apr. 28, 1788), South Carolina (May 23, 1788), New Hampshire (June 21, 1788), Virginia (June 25, 1788), New York (July 26, 1788), North Carolina (Nov. 21, 1789), and Rhode Island (May 29, 1790)

Constitution ratified by 11 in 1788BDelaware is 1^st to ratify.

Hamilton=s The Federalist (1787-1788)

Federal government established (1789)

Bill of Rights (1789)

Federalist Age (1790-1830)

U.S. Presidents:

1st President: George Washington (1789-1797)

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) Novelist

Vermont is admitted into the Union as the 14^th State (March 4, 1791)

Kentucky is admitted into the Union as the 15^th State (June 1, 1792)

Fugitive Slave Law (1793)

Stephen Austin (1793-1863) Colonizer of Texas

Tennessee is admitted into the Union as the 16^th State (June 1, 1796)

James Bowie (1796-1836) Soldier, died at Alamo

2nd President: John Adams (Father of John Quincy Adams, the 6th President) (1797-1801)

Library of Congress founded (1800)

John Brown (1800-1859) Abolitionist

3rd President: Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)

Louisiana Purchase (1803)

Ohio is admitted into the Union as 17^th State (March 1, 1803)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Writer

Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806)Btracing MO river to its source, crossed Great Divide and back down Columbia River to Pacific Ocean

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) Novelist

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) Abolitionist/Reformer/Journalist

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) Poet

4th President: James Madison (1809-1817)

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) Writer

Horace Greeley (1811-1872) Journalist/Politician

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) Author

Louisiana is admitted into the Union as the 18^th State (April 30, 1812)

War of 1812 (Great Britain vs. U.S.) (1812-1815)

John C. Fremont (1813-1890), American explorer/general

Indiana is admitted into the Union as the 19^th State (December 11, 1816)

5th President: James Monroe (1817-1825)

Mississippi is admitted into the Union as the 20^th State (December 10, 1817)

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Writer

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) Abolitionist/Writer

Illinois is admitted into the Union as the 21^st State (December 3, 1818)

Alabama is admitted into the Union as the 22^nd State (December 14, 1819)

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Poet

Herman Melville (1819-1891) Novelist

Missouri Compromise establishes that for every slave state that enters the Union, a free state must also be entered and that no slavery could exist above 36 30' (southern boundary of Missouri) (1820)

Maine is admitted (as a free state) into the Union as 23^rd State (March 15, 1820)

Missouri is admitted (as a slave state) into the Union as 24^th State (August 10, 1821)

Red Cloud (Mahpiua Luta) (1822-1909) Chief of Bad Face Band of Oglalas and leader of Sioux and Cheyenne Bands, resisted U.S. in Bozeman Trail Development, Fetterman Massacre (12/21/1866)

6th President: John Quincy Adams (Son of John Adams, the 2nd President) (1825-1829)

Webster=s An American Dictionary (1828)

7th President: Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)

Geronimo (1829-1909) Apache leader

ROMANTIC PERIOD (1830-1865)

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830-1886) Poet

New England Anti-Slavery Society founded (1831)

Nat Turner leads Slave Rebellion in Virginia (1831)

Chief Sitting Bull (1831?-1890) Chief of Sioux Nation, fought at Little Big Horn

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) Novelist

Texas Revolution (1835-1836)

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) (1835-1910) Writer

Arkansas is admitted into the Union as the 25^th State (June 15, 1836)

Sam Houston (1793-1863) Soldier/politician, 1^st President of Republic of Texas (1836- 1838 and 1841-1844), Governor of Texas (1859-1861)

8th President: Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)

Michigan is admitted into the Union as the 26^th State (January 26, 1837)

William Dean Howells (1837-1920) Writer

General George Custer (1839-1876) Army officer in AIndian Wars@ and Civil War, killed at Little Big Horn

9th President: William Henry Harrison (Died in Office) (1841-1841)

10th President: John Tyler (1841-1845)

Fremont explores Oregon Trail (1842)

Crazy Horse (Tasunkowitko) (1842?-1877) Chief of Oglala tribe of Sioux, fought at Little Big Horn

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) Journalist/Writer

Henry James (1843-1916) American/English Novelist

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) Artist

11th President: James K. Polk (1845-1849)

Florida is admitted into the Union as the 27^th State (March 3, 1845)

Texas is admitted into the Union as the 28^th State (December 29, 1845)

Mexican-American War Mexico vs. U.S.) (1846-1848)

Iowa is admitted into the Union as the 29^th State (December 28, 1846)

Buffalo Bill Cody (1846-1917) Scout/Showman/Rider for Pony Express

Jesse James (1847-1882) Outlaw

Wisconsin is admitted into the Union as the 30^th State (May 29, 1848)

12th President: Zachary Taylor (Died in Office) (1849-1850)

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) Writer

13th President: Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)

Compromises of 1850

California is admitted (as a free state) into the Union as the 31^st State (September 1, 1850)

Fugitive Slave Law established that runaway slaves must be returned to their owners and are not to be considered citizens (1850)

Katherine Chopin (1851-1904) Novelist

Stowe=s Uncle Tom=s Cabin (1852)

14th President: Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)

Kansas-Nebraska Act overturns part of Missouri Compromise and rules that each state=s slave/free status should be decided by vote of territorial inhabitants (1854)

City of Lawrence, KS founded by New England Emigrant Aid Company (1854)

Thoreau=s Walden (1854)

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) Educator/Writer

15th President: James Buchanan (1857-1861)

Dred Scott v. Sanford establishes that Missouri Compromise (which, among other things, banned slavery above 36 30') was unconstitutional and that freed slaves would not be considered citizensBDred Scott had lived in free territory with his owner for a few years and considered himself free and a citizen as of his owner=s death due to this fact. Sanford was Scott=s previous owner=s brother-in-law and Scott=s new owner (1857)

Edward Franklin Albee (1857-1930) Playwright

City of Lawrence, KS incorporated (1858)

Minnesota is admitted into the Union as the 32^nd State (May 11, 1858)

Oregon is admitted into the Union as the 33^rd State (February 14, 1859)

Pony Express (1860-1861)BSt. Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CABreplaced by telegraph

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) Writer

Grandma (Anna Mary) Moses (1860-1961) Artist

Kansas is admitted into the Union (as a free state) as the 34^th State (January 29, 1861)

16th President: Abraham Lincoln (Assassinated in Office) (1861-1865)

Civil War (North vs. South) (1861-1865)

Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863)

Quantrill=s Raid on Lawrence, KS (August 21; 1863)Bkilled approximately 150 males

Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863)

O. Henry (real name=William Sidney Porter) (1862-1910) Writer

Edith Newbold Wharton (1862-1937) Novelist

West Virginia is admitted into the Union as the 35^th State (June 20, 1863)

George Santayana (1863-1952) Spanish/American poet

Nevada is admitted into the Union as the 36^th State (October 31, 1864)

George Washington Carver (1864?-1943) Botanist

President Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford=s Theater in Washington, D.C. (April 14, 1865)

REALISTIC PERIOD (1865-1900)

17th President: Andrew Johnson (Impeached in 1868 but not Removed) (1865-1869)

Thirteenth Amendment to Constitution, which makes slavery illegal, adopted (December 18, 1865)

University of Kansas opens (1866)s

Nebraska is admitted into the Union as the 37^th State (March 1, 1867)

Fourteenth Amendment to Constitution, which officially recognizes the citizenship of all who are born or naturalized within the U.S., adopted (July 28, 1868)

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) Educator/Writer

18th President: Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)

Edgar Lee Masters (1869-1950) Poet

Fifteenth Amendment to Constitution, which establishes rights of citizens regardless of race (essentially, this gives all malesBeven former slavesBthe right to vote), adopted (March 30, 1870)

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) Writer

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) Writer

Willa Sibert Cather (1873-1947) Writer

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) American/French Writer

Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963) Poet

Zane Grey (1875-1939) American writer of Westerns

Battle of Little Big Horn June 25, 1876

Famous U.S. Conflict between Native Americans and U.S. troops under General Custer and several American soldiers were killed by Native American forces under Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Also called ACuster=s Last Stand.@

Colorado is admitted into the Union as the 38^th State (August 1, 1876)

Jack London (1876-1916) Writer

Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) Writer

19th President: Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) Novelist

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German/American Physicist

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) Poet

20th President: James A. Garfield (Assassinated in Office) (1881-1881)

President Garfield shot by religious fanatic Charles Guiteau at Washington, D.C. train station (July 2, 1881)

President Garfield dies from his wounds (September 19, 1881)

21st President: Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)

Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) Scientist/@Father of Modern Rocketry@

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Russian/American composer

Civil Rights CasesBSupreme Court declares private acts of discrimination won=t be stopped by Congress (1883)

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) Poet

22nd President: Grover Cleveland (Also 24th President) (1885-1889)

Ring Lardner (1885-1933) Writer

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) Novelist

Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American/European Poet

T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot (1888-1965) American/English Poet

Eugene Gladstone O=Neill (1888-1953) Playwright

23rd President: Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)

North and South Dakota are admitted into the Union as the 39^th and 40^th States (November 2, 1889)

Montana is admitted into the Union as the 41^st State (November 8,. 1889)

Washington is admitted into the Union as the 42^nd State (November 11, 1889)

Idaho is admitted into the Union as the 43^rd State (July 3, 1890)

Wyoming is admitted into the Union as the 44^th State (July 10, 1890)

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) Supreme Commander in WWII, President (1953-1961).

Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) Writer

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) Writer

Djuna Barnes (1892-1982) Writer

24th President: Grover Cleveland (Also the 22nd President) (1893-1897)

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) Writer/Wit

e.e. cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings) (1894-1962) Poet

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) Artist

Plessy v. Ferguson establishes that Aseparate but equal@ racial policies are not in violation of Fourteenth AmendmentBPlessy was a man of mixed African and European descent who tried to sit in a Awhites only@ section of a train. Ferguson was the U.S. District Court judge who Plessy sued to attempt to overturn the segregation law (1896)

Utah is admitted into the Union as the 45^th State (January 4, 1896)

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896-1940) Novelist

John Dos Passos (1896-1970) Novelist

25th President: William McKinley (Assassinated in Office) (1897-1901)

Amelia Mary Earhart (1897-1937?) Aviator

William Cuthbert Faulkner (1897-1962) Novelist

Spanish-American War (Spain vs. U.S.) (1898)

George Gershwin (1898-1937) Composer

Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) Chinese try to eject or kill foreigners, representatives of foreign powers, and Chinese Christians

Hart Crane (1899-1932) Poet

Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961) Novelist

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1899-1977) Russian/American novelist

NATURALISTIC AND SYMBOLISTIC PERIOD (1900-1930)

Thomas Clayton Wolfe (1900-1938) Novelist

President McKinley shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at Pan-American fair in Buffalo, NY (September 6, 1901)

President McKinley dies of his wounds (due to onset of gangrene) (September 14,1901)

26th President: Theodore Roosevelt (pronounced like Rue-se-velt, distant cousin of FDR, the 32nd President) (1901-1909)

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) Italian/American Physicist

Walt Disney (1901-1966) Animator

Langston Hughes (1902-1967) Poet

John Ernst Steinbeck (1902-1968) Novelist

Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-1974) Aviator

Panama Canal Construction (1904-1914)

Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) Physicist/@Father of Atomic Bomb@

Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) (1904-1991) Author/Cartoonist

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian/American Novelist

Oklahoma is admitted into the Union as the 46^th State (November 16, 1907)

W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden (1907-1973) British/American Poet

James Michener (1907-1997) Writer

Richard Nathaniel Wright (1908-1960) Novelist

Louis L=amour (1908-1988) American writer of Westerns

27th President: William Howard Taft (1909-1913)

NAACP created (1909)

Eudora Welty (1909- ) Writer

Tennessee (Thomas Lanier) Williams (1911-1983) Playwright

New Mexico is admitted into the Union as the 47^th State (January 6, 1912)

Arizona is admitted into the Union as the 48^th State (February 14, 1912)

Wernher von Braun (1912-1977) German/American Astrophysicist/Engineer

28th President: Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)

Rosa Parks (1913- ) Civil Rights Activist

Bernard Malamud (1914-1986) Writer

Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914-1994) Novelist

Sinking of Lusitania (1915)

Arthur Miller (1915- ) Playwright

World War I (1917-1918)

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917- ) Poet

Richard Feynman (1918-1988) Physicist

Eighteenth Amendment to Constitution, which prohibits sale or consumption of alcohol, adopted (January 29, 1919)

J.D. (Jerome David) Salinger (1919- ) Novelist

Panama Canal formally opened (1920)

Nineteenth Amendment to Constitution, which gives females the right to vote, adopted (August 26, 1920)

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian/American Novelist

Ray Bradbury (1920- ) Novelist

29th President: Warren G. Harding (Died in Office) (1921-1923)

Teapot Dome Scandal (Secretary of Interior Falls fraudulently leased naval oil reserves in Teapot Dome, CA and Elk Hills, WY to Doheny and SinclairBFall found guilty for accepting bribes; Doheny and Sinclair were acquitted) (1921-1924)

Alex Haley (1921-1992) Writer

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) Writer

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922- ) Novelist

30th President: Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)

Alan Shepard, Jr. (1923-1998) Astronaut

Norman Mailer (1923- ) Writer

James Baldwin (1924-1987) Writer

Malcolm X (1925-1965) Religious Leader

Flannery O=Connor (1925-1964) Writer

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) Poet

Harper Lee (1926- ) Writer

Nicola Sacco (1891-1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888-1927)Bpolitical radicals executed for murder despite widespread doubt of their guilt (1927)

Lindbergh makes 1^st nonstop solo flight across Atlantic Ocean in Spirit of St. Louis (May 20-21, 1927)

James Wright (1927-1980) Poet

John Glenn, Jr. (1927- ) Astronaut/Senator

Anne Sexton (1928-1974) Poet

Andy Warhol (1928?-1987) Pop Artist

Maya Angelou (1928- ) Poet

31st President: Herbert C. Hoover (1929-1933)

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) Religious leader/reformer

Adrienne Rich (1929- ) Poet

PERIOD OF CONFORMITY AND CRITICISM (1930-1960)

Ed ABuzz@ Aldrin (1930- ) Astronaut

Neil Armstrong (1930- ) Astronaut

Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) Playwright

Key=s AStar-Spangled Banner@ (written as a poem in 1814) adopted as National Anthem in 1931

Toni Morrison (1931- ) Novelist

Earhart is 1^st woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (1932)

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) Poet

John Updike (1932- ) Writer

32nd President: Franklin D. Roosevelt (pronounced like Roe-se-velt, distant cousin of Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th President) (Died in Office) (1933-1945)

Twenty-first Amendment to Constitution, which repeals Eighteenth AmendmentBProhibition of Alcohol, adopted (December 5, 1933)

Ernest J. Gaines (1933- ) Writer

Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998) Black Panther leader

Hoover/Boulder Dam completed (1936)

Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989) Political activist

Earhart lost while attempting round-the-world flight (1937)

Rudolfo Anaya (1937- ) Writer

Raymond Carver (1938-1988) Writer

Joyce Carol Oates (1938- ) Writer

Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)

World War II (1941-1945)

John Irving (1942- ) Novelist

Michael Ondaatje (1943- ) Sri Lankan (Ceylonese)/Canadian Poet/Novelist

Alice Walker (1944- ) Novelist

33rd President: Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)

Atomic bombing of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945)

Atomic bombing of Nagasaki (August 9, 1945)

United Nations formed (1945)

Korean War (Chinese and North Koreans vs. U.N., mostly U.S. and South Koreans) (1950-1953)

McCarthyism/Red Scare (February 1950-1954)

Julius (1918-1953) and Ethel (1915-1953) Rosenberg are arrested for providing nuclear secrets to Soviets (1950)

Joy Harjo (1951- ) Poet

Sally Ride (1951- ) U.S. Female Astronaut

Amy Tan (1952- ) Novelist

34th President: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are 1^st civilians executed for espionage for providing nuclear secrets to Soviets (1953)

Brown v. Topeka Board of Education overturns Aseparate but equal@ policy (established by Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896) which leads to desegregation of public schools (1954, 1955)

Sandra Cisneros (1954- ) Writer

Troops sent to Little Rock, AR to force school integration (1957)

Explorer 1 (January 31, 1958)B1st U.S. artificial satellite launched

Alaska is admitted into the Union as the 49^th State (January 3, 1959)

Hawaii is admitted into the Union as the 50^th State (August 21, 1959)

PERIOD OF THE CONFESSIONAL SELF (1960- )

35th President: John F. Kennedy (Assassinated in Office) (1961-1963)

Berlin wall begun September 1961

Bay of Pigs Invasion (April 17-19, 1961)

Alan B. Shepard is 1^st U.S. Astronaut to make a suborbital trip (May 5, 1961)

John Glenn is 1^st U.S. Astronaut to make an orbital trip (February 20, 1962) on Friendship 7

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

President John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald? during motorcade parade in Dallas, TX (November 22, 1963)

36th President: Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)

Malcolm X assassinated by unknown assassins at rally in Harlem, NY (February 21, 1965)

Vietnam War (North/Viet Cong vs. South/Viet Minh and U.S.) (@ 1965-1973)

Ex-Marine Charles Whitman shoots from University of Texas at Austin clock tower and kills 13 people plus an unborn baby (August 1, 1966)

Tet Offensive launched by North Vietnamese (January 31, 1968)

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, TN (April 4, 1968)

Senator Robert Francis Kennedy is shot (June 5) (died June 6th) by Sirhan Sirhan in hotel in Los Angeles, CA (June 5-6, 1968)

37th President: Richard M. Nixon (Resigned in 1974 During Impeachment Process) (1969-1974)

Neil Armstrong is 1^st Man to walk on the moon (July 20, 1969) on Apollo 11 (makes 1^st moon walk with Ed ABuzz@ Aldrin, 2^nd man to walk on the moon)BArmstrong says, AOne small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.@

SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)Bbetween U.S. and U.S.S.R beginning in November 1969 on regulation of nuclear arms.

SALT I (November 1969-January 1972)BAnti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and Interim Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (both signed May 26, 1972)

Nixon makes 1^st visit by President to Communist China in February 1971.

Watergate Burglary (June 17, 1972)

Watergate Scandal (1973-1974)

President Nixon resigns and leaves office (August 9, 1974)

38th President: Gerald Ford (1974-1977)

SALT II (September 1972-January 1979)

39th President: Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)

Camp David Accords (September 17, 1978) Peace Accords signed by Begin of Israel and Sadat of Egypt.

Seizure of U.S. Embassy in Iran and Hostage Crisis -- 53 American hostages (November 4, 1979-January 20,1981) . This action, encouraged by radical Shiite Muslim leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, was taken because U.S. admitted Shah of Iran for medical treatment. Lasted 444 days.

40th President: Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)

Iranian hostages released on day of Reagan=s inauguration (January 20, 1981)

President Reagan shot but not mortally wounded by John Hinckley, Jr. (March 30, 1981)

Libya Conflict B 1981-we shot down 2 Libyan planes

Lebanon Conflict--Marines sent into Lebanon to support Lebanese Christians (1982-1984)

Sally Ride was 1^st U.S. Woman in Space and to Orbit the Earth (June 18, 1983) on the Challenger space shuttle

Approximately 250 U.S. Marines killed by bomb in Lebanon (October 1983)

Grenada Conflict (1983-September 1985) Invasion of Grenada (October 25, 1983) following Marxist coup d=etat of Bishop=s regime

Iran-Contra Affair, a scandal in which Lt. Col. Oliver North of National Security Council arranges for sale of weapons to Iran in order to obtain release of hostages held in Lebanon by pro-Iranians and to get money to give to Nicaraguan Contras for use against Sandinistas (1985-1987)

Bombed sites in Qaddafi's Libya (April 15, 1986)

41st President: George Bush (Father of George W. Bush, the 43rd President) (1989-1993)

Attempted Capture of Manuel Noriega (1989)

Persian Gulf War (Iraq vs. U.N., mostly U.S.) (1991)

Iraqis under Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in the fall of 1990. We made them leave.

Somalian Conflict (December 9, 1992-March 1994) Near the end of President Bush's presidency, Marines were dispatched to restore order and get food to the starving as a humanitarian effort. We pulled out after 18 U.S. soldiers were killed (including an Army Ranger whose corpse was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu) on October 3-4, 1993. Bin Laden claims responsibility. U.S. returned in February 1995 to help UN peacekeeping forces leave in March of 1995.

42nd President: Bill Clinton (Impeached but not Removed) (1993-2001)

World Trade Center Bombing
Act committed by 4 fundamentalist Islamic radical believed to have been associated with Osama bin Laden of Afghanistan--6 dead, hundreds injured (1993)

Branch Davidian Compound Siege and Fire
Over 70 Branch Davidians (including the religious cult's leader, David Koresh) and 4 federal agents killed in siege and subsequent fire in Branch Davidian compound. Federal agents were trying to confiscate illegal weapons. (1993)

Oklahoma City Bombing
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombed by extremist, anti-government Persian Gulf War-veteran Timothy McVeigh arrested for and convicted of the bombing (McVeigh claims bombing is retaliation for federal action taken in Ruby Ridge, ID, and against the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX. McVeigh is executed in 2001.) (1995)

Khobar Towers Bombing (1996)
Khobar Towers, a military housing complex used by U.S. Troops in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, was bombed. Bin Laden is believed to be responsible.

Kosovo War (Yugoslavian Serbs vs. NATO, mostly U.S.) (1999)
Serbs invaded Kosovo and began to massacre ethnic Albanians (much as they did to the Bosnians in the Bosnian War a few years earlier). We bombed several sites (including a Chinese Embassy by accident). Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic eventually agreed to our terms.

43rd President: George W. Bush (Son of George Bush, the 41st President) (2001- )

Terrorist Attack on United States (September 11, 2001)
Within minutes of each other, two hijacked commercial planes crash into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City (the north tower was hit at 8:45 AM EDT by American Airlines Flight 11 (a Boeing 767 carrying 92 people originally to fly from Logan Airport in Boston, MA, to Los Angeles, CA); the south tower was hit at 9:03 AM EDT by United Airlines Flight 175 (a Boeing 767 carrying 65 people originally to fly from Logan Airport in Boston, MA, to Los Angeles, CA)
The south tower collapses at 10:05 AM EDT; the north tower collapses at 10:29 AM EDT.
A third hijacked commercial plane, American Airlines Flight 77 (a Boeing 757 carrying 64 people originally to fly from Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, CA), crashes into a section of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. at 9:43 AM EDT.
A fourth hijacked commercial plane crashes in a field in eastern Pennsylvania at 10:00 AM EDT. (This fourth commercial plane, United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 carrying 45 people originally to fly from Newark, NJ, to San Francisco, CA, had also been hijacked and seems to have been flying toward Washington, D.C., or Camp David, MD, when passengers apparently forced a crash landing rather than allow another of the terrorists' targets to be hit.)
President George W. Bush calls it "an Act of War" committed by a "Faceless Coward."
Just under 3000 people were killed (confirmed or presumed dead) in the World Trade Center attacks (including several firefighters, policemen, and other emergency personnel responding to the plane crashes). Over 100 were killed in the Pentagon. All of the crew and passengers from all four of the planes were killed. This coordinated series of terrorist attacks has been called the worst terrorist attack in world history. A total of 3,047 people were killed in these coordinated terrorist attacks.

Osama bin Laden, a fundamentalist Islamic extremist based in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan (the Taliban has ruled most of Afghanistan since the capture of Kabul in 1996) and the leader of Al Qaeda, which bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the suicide boat bombers of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 (not to mention various other terrorist plots and activities, such as the "Millennium Plot" to bomb various high profile landmarks in the United States on New Year's Day of 2000), is presumed to be responsible.
Osama bin Laden is the son of a millionaire who became rich as a builder in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia (his parents were from Yemen), but he left Saudi Arabia in 1991 after disagreeing with the Saudi monarchy and is now based in Afghanistan . He fought against the U.S.S.R. as part of the mujahedin in the Soviet-Afghani War (1979-1989). The United States Central Intelligence Agency trained Bin Laden and other Afghani resistance fighters at this time. Bin Laden founded his Al Qaeda ("the Base" in Arabic) terrorist network in 1989. Bin Laden based his Al Qaeda worldwide terrorist network in Afghanistan and Peshawar, Pakistan, from 1989-1991, then he moved to the Sudan in 1991 and based Al Qaeda in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 1996, he moved back to Afghanistan and gave his support to the Taliban. As founder of Al Qaeda, Bin Laden has many ties to other extremist Islamic terrorist organizations. He has targeted the United States, he says, for desecrating Islamic land (both Medina and Mecca, two of the holiest Muslim sites, are located within the borders of present-day Saudi Arabia) by putting troops in Saudi Arabia in 1990 during the Persian Gulf War (he made similar statements about the U.S.S.R. when it was fighting in Afghanistan). Bin Laden has called the continued presence in Saudi Arabia following the Persian Gulf War an "occupation of the land of the holy places."
In 1996, Bin Laden issued a "fatwah" (religious edict) encouraging Muslims to kill U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia and Somalia. He issued another fatwah naming all U.S. civilians as targets in 1998. Bin Laden fought alongside Afghani resistance fighters in 1979, trying to rid Afghanistan of U.S.S.R. troops. Saudi Arabia revoked his Saudi citizenship and froze his Saudi assets in 1994. Bin Laden has several links to other radical Islamic terrorist groups and lead the Al Qaeda terrorist group. In 1995, Bin Laden's group tried to assassinate President Mubarak of Egypt while he was visiting Ethiopia.
The Taliban, rulers of the majority of Afghanistan since its capture of Kabul in 1996, are extremist Muslims who have been widely criticized for human rights violations, particularly the treatment of women under Taliban rule, and its destruction of any non-Islamic landmarks in Afghanistan. Mullah Momammed Omar is the leader of the Taliban. The Taliban is based in Kandahar. The Taliban movement emerged in the early 1990s's from the Afghani refugee camps in Pakistan. The Northern Alliance (who call themselves the United Front), a loose confederation of warlords and their soldiers, is the Taliban's main organized opposition and has a strong presence in northeastern Afghanistan (approximately 10% of Afghanistan is under Northern Alliance control).

From CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com):
The U.S. alleges that from 1992 on, bin Laden and other al Qaeda members targeted U.S. military forces in Saudi Arabia and in Yemen and those stationed in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia.
In October 1993, 18 U.S. servicemen involved in the U.S. humanitarian relief effort in Somalia were killed during a raid against local warlords, who keeping food from the Somalian people, in Mogadishu. Their bodies were dragged through the streets. Bin Laden has since claimed that he helped the Somalian warlords in killing the U.S. servicemen.
Bin Laden was indicted in 1996 on charges of training the people involved in the attack and in a 1997 interview with CNN, bin Laden said his followers, together with local Muslims, killed those troops.
On August 7, 1998, eight years after the U.S. deployment in Saudi Arabia, a pair of truck bombs exploded outside the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. These attacks killed approximately 250 people.
Fourteen days later, on August 20, 1998, President Bill Clinton ordered cruise missile attacks against suspected terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan.
Four of his alleged supporters were convicted of the bombings on May 29, 2001, and sentenced to life in prison. Several suspects are in custody awaiting trial.
Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian who pleaded guilty to a failed plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Years Day 2000, claimed he was trained at an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan run by bin Laden.

U.S. Air Strikes Against Bin Laden and Taliban in Afghanistan (October 7, 2001)
Beginning approximately 12:30 PM EDT (which is about 9 PM in Afghanistan), the United States began bombing Taliban military sites and Bin Laden/Al Qaeda training camps and strongholds in Kandahar (the Taliban religious capital), Kabul (the Afghani capital), and Jalalabad (near the border with Pakistan). Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Momammed Omar have reportedly survived the initial airstrikes. The Northern Alliance, a loose confederation of warlords and their soldiers (mostly made up of ethnic Tajik and Uzbek Afghans with some Hazari and Shiites as opposed to the Pashtuns who make up most of the Taliban's forces) who oppose the Taliban, may begin striking into Taliban-held areas within next few days.

U.S. Ground Strikes (October 19, 2001) Army Rangers begin raids against Taliban airports, political leaders' compounds, and military installations.