Key Terms in American History
Elizabeth Cady Stanton by Anna Elizabeth Klumpke
(National Portrait Gallery)
The following is a list of important events, people, and
movements in American history arranged in chronological order. A student
who has a strong understanding of these terms will be acquainted with most
of the significant elements of the history of the United States. What a
term list like this does not cover well are the intellectual, cultural,
and literary influences on American life and history.
Native American and Precolonial Periods
Anasazi culture
Balboa
Bering land-bridge
Cartier
Champlain
Columbus
Coronado
Hohokam culture
Hopewell culture
Magellan
mound-builders
Pueblo culture
Colonial Beginnings
Bacon's Rebellion
Calvin, John
Haklyut, Richard
Half-Way Covenant
Hutchinson, Anne
Jamestown
joint-stock company
Luther, Martin and the priesthood of all believers
Mayflower Compact
Minuit
Old Deluder (Satan) Act
Pequot War
Pocahontas
Roanoke
Rolfe, John
Salem Witchcraft Crisis
Separatist Puritans (Pilgrims)
Smith, John
Squanto
Tituba
Williams, Roger
Winthrop, John
18th Century Colonial Life
coureurs de bois
deism
Edwards, Jonathan
Enlightenment thought
Franklin, Benjamin
Glorious Revolution
Great Awakening
King William's War
Leisler's Rebellion
Navigation Acts
New Lights vs. Old Lights
Oglethorpe, James
Quakers (Society of Friends)
Stono Rebellion
Whitefield, George
Prologue to Revolution (1754-1775)
Adams, Samuel
Albany Plan of Union
Boston Massacre
Boston Tea Party
Coercive Acts, Quebec Act
Committees of Correspondence
Declaratory Act
Dickinson, John, Letters from a Farmer
French & Indian War
Gaspee incident
Lord North
Paine, Thomas, Common Sense
Pontiac's Rebellion
Proclamation of 1763
Revere, Paul
salutary neglect
Sons of Liberty
Stamp Act
Sugar Act
Tea Act of 1773
Townshend Duties
Treaty of Paris of 1763
virtual representation
writs of assistance
Revolutionary War
Battle of New York City
Declaration of Independence
First & Second Continental Congress
Iriquois Confederacy
Jefferson, Thomas
Lexington-Concord
loyalists, Tories
Peace of Paris, 1783
Saratoga
Trenton
Washington, George
Yorktown
Articles of Confederation Period & Constitutional Convention
Annapolis Convention
Antifederalists
Articles of Confederation
Bill of Rights
checks and balances
Commerce Compromise
Connecticut Compromise
Constitutional Convention, 1787
Federalist Papers
Land Ordinance of 1785
Madison, James
New Jersey Plan
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Shays's Rebellion
Three-fifths Compromise
Virginia Plan
Federalist Era
Alien and Sedition Acts
Bank of the U.S.
Chisholm v. Georgia
Citizen Genet
Election of 1800
Hamilton, Alexander
impressment
Jay's Treaty
Judiciary Act of 1789
Pinckney Treaty
Prosser's (or Gabriel's) Rebellion
Report on Manufacturs
Report on Public Credit
strict & loose interpretation of the Constitution
Treaty of Greenville
Virginia & Kentucky Resolutions
Washington's Farewell Address
Whiskey Rebellion
XYZ Affair
Jeffersonian Era & War of 1812
Barbary pirates
Burr conspiracy
Chesapeake affair
Embargo Act
Era of Good Feelings
Hartford Convention
Lewis and Clark expedition
Marbury v. Madison
midnight judges
New Orleans, Battle of
Sacajawea
Tecumseh and the Prophet
Tippecanoe
Treaty of Ghent
war hawks
Nationalism & Sectionalism
Adams-Onis Treaty
American System (Henry Clay)
Clermont (Robert Fulton)
corrupt bargain of 1824 Election
Dartmouth College v. Woodward
Erie Canal
Gibbons v. Ogden
Lowell (Waltham) System
McCulloch v. Maryland
Monroe Doctrine
Panic of 1819
Rush-Bagot Treaty
Jacksonian Era
2nd Bank of the United States
Hudson River School of art
Indian removal
Locofocos
nullification crisis
pet banks
spoils system
Tariff of Abominations
Webster-Hayne Debates
Whigs
Reform Movements in 19th Century America
Auburn System (prison reform)
Dix, Dorothea
Douglass, Frederick
gag rule
Garrison, William Lloyd
Grimke sisters
Mann, Horace
Millerites (Adventists)
Mormonism
Owen, Robert
Second Great Awakening
Seneca Falls Statement
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
temperance movement
transcendentalism
Truth, Sojourner
utopian communities
Expansionism & Immigration
Alamo
Austin, Stephen F.
Bible Riots
Buena Vista
California gold rush
Goliad
Lone Star Republic
Manifest Destiny
nativism
Oregon Treaty
overland trail
Polk, James K.
San Jacinto
Santa Anna
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
Wilmot Proviso
Antebellum America (1850-1861)
Bleeding Kansas
Brown, John
Compromise of 1850
Dred Scott decision
Election of 1860
Fort Sumter
free soil
Freeport Doctrine
Fugitive Slave Act
Gadsden Purchase
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Know-Nothing Party
Lecompton Constitution
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Ostend Manifesto
South Carolina's secession
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Civil War
Antietam
Appomattox Court House
Bull Run, First Battle
Draft riots of 1863
Emancipation Proclamation
Gettysburg
Grant, Ulysses S.
Homestead Act
Lee, Robert E.
McClellan, George
Monitor and Merrimac
Morrill Land Grant Act
Peninsula Campaign
Sherman's March
Trent affair
Vicksburg
Reconstruction (1865-1877)
10 percent plan
black codes
Compromise of 1877
crop-lien system
Freedmen's Bureau
Johnson's impeachment
Ku Klux Klan
Lincoln's assassination
Radical Republicans
scalawags and carpetbaggers
sharecropping
Slaughterhouse cases
Tenure of Office Act
Wade-Davis Bill
1865-1900: Frontier West
Comstock Lode
Custer & Little Big Horn
Dawes Severalty Act
Interstate Commerce Act
Muir, John
Munn v. Illinois
Oklahoma sooners
Powell, John Wesley
Promontory Point, Utah
Turner, Frederick Jackson
Wounded Knee
1865-1900: Industrial America
American Federation of Labor
Carnegie, Andrew
Debs, Eugene V.
Edison, Thomas A.
Gompers, Samuel
Knights of Labor
National Labor Union
Sherman Antitrust Act
Social Darwinism
Standard Oil Trust
Taylor, Frederick
vertical and horizontal integration
yellow dog contracts
1865-1900: Urban Culture
Addams, Jane
dumbbell tenements
Ellis Island
Nast, Thomas
Olmstead, Frederick Law
Rauschenbusch, Walter
skyscraper
Social Gospel
Tammany Hall & Boss Tweed
Gilded Age Politics & Imperialism
Aguinaldo, Emilio
Anti-Imperialist League
Bland-Allison Act
Boxer Rebellion
Bryan, William Jennings
Butcher Weyler
Coxey's Army
free silver
Influence of Sea Power Upon History (Alfred Mahan)
Liliuokalani
Open Door Policy
Pendleton Civil Service Act
Platt Amendment
Plessy v. Ferguson
Populist Party
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Teller Amendment
U.S.S. Maine
yellow journalism (Hearst & Pulitzer)
Progressive Era
Anti-Saloon League
Bull Moose Party
Dewey, John
Du Bois, W.E.B.
Federal Reserve Act
Industrial Workers of the World
Jim Crow laws
Mann Act and white slavery
muckrakers
New Nationalism
Northern Securities case
Pinchot, Gifford
Roosevelt, Theodore & square deal
Sinclair, Upton (The Jungle)
Socialist Party of America
Triangle Shirtwaist fire
Washington, Booker (Atlanta Compromise)
World War I & International Relations
18th Amendment
19th Amendment
Arabic and Sussex pledges
Creel Committee on Public Information
dollar diplomacy
Espionage Act of 1917
Food Administration
Fourteen Points
League of Nations
Liberty Loans
Lodge, Henry Cabot
Lusitania
Palmer, A. Mitchell
Rankin, Jeannette
Red Scare
Roosevelt Corollary
Schenck v. U.S.
Selective Service Act
Treaty of Versailles
Villa, Pancho
War Industries Board
Zimmermann Note
The 1920s
Capone, Al
flappers
fundamentalism
Garvey, Marcus
Harlem Renaissance
KDKA
McPherson, Aimme Semple
National Origins Act
Sacco & Vanzetti
Scopes Trial
Teapot Dome scandal
Crash, the Great Depression, and the New Deal
Agricultural Adjustment Act
Black Thursday
Civilian Conservation Corps
court-packing plan
Dust Bowl (Oklahoma Okies)
Father Coughlin
Long, Huey
margin buying
National Labor Relations Act
National Recovery Administration
Public Works Administration
Scottsboro boys
Social Security Act
Tennessee Valley Authority
Works Progress Administration
International Relations Between the World Wars
Abraham Lincoln Brigade
Anschluss of Austria
appeasement (Chamberlin at Munich)
Good Neighbor Policy
Kellogg-Briand Pact
Kristallnacht
Neutrality Acts
Nuremberg laws
Washington Naval Conference
World War II
Atlantic Charter
Battle of the Bulge
cash-and-carry
Coral Sea
D-Day Invasion
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
lend-lease
Midway
Pearl Harbor
Rosie the Riveter
Stalingrad
Yalta Conference
Cold War America
containment policy
Fair Deal
Hiss, Alger
House Un-American Activities Committee
Iron Curtain speech (Churchill)
Mao Zedong
Marshall Plan
McCarthyism
NATO
Potsdam Conference
Rosenberg, Julius & Ethel
San Francisco Conference
Security Council
Taft-Hartley Act
Truman Doctrine
The 1950s
Brown v. Topeka Board of Education
Dienbienphu
domino theory
Letter from the Birmingham Jail (M.L. King, Jr.)
Little Rock Nine
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Sputnik
The 1960s
Assassination of Kennedy (1963)
Bay of Pigs
Berkeley Free Speech Movement
Black Panthers
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Cuban Missile Crisis
Election of 1960 (Kennedy vs. Nixon)
Great Society
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Malcolm X
Miranda v. Arizona
Moon Landing (1969)
My Lai Massacre
Peace Corps
Port Huron Statement
Tet offensive
U.S.S. Pueblo
Vietnamization
War on Poverty
Warren Commission
Woodstock
Contemporary America (1970-present)
Ayatollah Khomeini
Berlin Wall's fall
Equal Rights Amendment
Iran-contra scandal
Lewinsky, Monica
Operation Desert Storm
Pentagon Papers
Roe v. Wade
SALT II
Sandanistas and contras
Saturday Night Massacre
Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars")
Watergate scandal
Please cite this source when appropriate:
Feldmeth, Greg D. "U.S. History Resources"
http://home.earthlink.net/~gfeldmeth/USHistory.html (31 March 1998).
Back
to U.S. History Resources
main
page.