A Brief Historical Overview of the United States: 1865-Present

1860-1865   American Civil War

1863   Emancipation Proclamation

1865   13th Amendment -- Outlaws Slavery

1867   Reconstruction Act

1869   Union Pacific Railroad Completed

1873   Nevada Silver Rush

1876   Bell Telephone Established / Battle of Little Big Horn

1877   End of Reconstruction / Thomas Edison’s Phonograph

1879   Thomas Edison’s Incandescent Lamp

1883   Brooklyn Bridge Completed

1887   First Electric Streetcar

1896   Klondike Gold Rush Begins

1898   Spanish-American War

1903   Wright Brothers’ Airplane

1909   First Mass Production of Automobiles -- The Model T Ford

1910   NAACP Founded

1917   United States Enters World War I (begins in 1914, ends in 1919)

1920   19th Amendment -- Women’s Suffrage

1929   Stock Market Collapse Begins the Depression

1935   Regular Trans-Pacific Air Service

1941   Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor / United States Enters World War II (begins in 1939, ends in 1945)

1950   United States Supports South Korea

1961   United States Severs Relations with Cuba

1963   Widespread Civil Rights Demonstrations / John F. Kennedy Assassination

1966   United States Begins Bombings in North Vietnam (Vietnam War ends in 1973)

1968   Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination

1969   United States Astronauts Land on the Moon

1972   Watergate Break-In Begins Richard Nixon’s “Downfall”

1981   Ronald Reagan Assassination Attempt