Magic Years and Eras… Specialty Cards Added to Skill Set Color Code White
MAGIC YEARS
Memorizing years is not required for mastery of U.S. history; however it is useful if you can
identify the following years by sight… and be able to explain how each is an important
turning point in history. Highlighted items INDICATE SPECIFIC YEARS EXPLICIT ON
FRAMEWORK. Underlined items are ALSO EXPLICIT.
1492 – Columbus “discover” America, Spanish colonization begins, Columbian Exchange begins
1607 – First permanent English colony – Jamestown on Chesapeake Bay
1619 – First slaves arrive in Jamestown & House Of Burgesses
1620 – Plymouth founded (Puritans) in New England
1676 – Bacon’s Rebellion
1754 – French and Indian War begins (Seven Years War)
1763 – Treaty of Paris - French and Indian War ends, Pontiac’s Rebellion, and Proclamation Line
1765 – Stamp Act, first direct tax, “no taxation without representation”
1775 – American Revolution begins; Lexington and Concord, Second
Continental Congress
1776 – Thomas Paine’s Common Sense & the Declaration of Independence
1783 – Treaty of Paris - end of American Revolution & beginning of U.S.A. under Articles of Confederation
1787 – Northwest Ordinance
1789 – Constitution ratified (Constitutional Convention, 1787, Federalists vs
Anti-Federalists)
1791 – Bill of Rights added to Constitution
1790s – First Two Party System, Hamilton vs Jefferson
1800 – “Revolution of 1800,” election of Thomas Jefferson
1803 – Louisiana Purchase, Marbury vs Madison (judicial review)
1808 – slave importation ends (Slavery Compromise 1789)
1812 – War of 1812 begins
1815 – Treaty of Ghent – end of War of 1812, Hartford Resolutions, end of
Federalist Party, beginning of Era of Good Feelings
1820 – Missouri Compromise
1823 - Monroe Doctrine
1824 – Corrupt Bargain, election, beginning of Democratic Party (pro- Jackson movement)
1828 – Andrew Jackson elected, Era of the Common Man
1820s-1830s – Second Two Party System, Jackson vs Clay
1844 – Election of Polk; Manifest Destiny
1846 – Mexican-American War begins
1848 – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexican Cession, end of MexicanAmerican War
1850 – Compromise of 1850 (CA free, end of slave trade in DC,
pop-sovereignty in cession lands, fugitive slave law)
1854 – Kansas Nebraska Act (pop-sov. in territories, bleeding Kansas),
Republican Party replaces Whig Party which split over slavery
1857 – Dred Scott vs Sanford
1860 – Election of Abraham Lincoln, secession begins
1861 – beginning of Civil War, Battle of Fort Sumter
1862 – Homestead Act, Pacific Railway Act, Treasury System, Morrill Act
Magic Years and Eras… Specialty Cards Added to Skill Set Color Code White
MAGIC YEARS…Continued…
1863 – Battle of Gettysburg, Gettysburg Address, Battle of Vicksburg,
Emancipation Proclamation
1865 – end of Civil War, assassination of Lincoln, 13th Amendment
1877 – end of Radical Reconstruction, Compromise of 1877. All states back in the Union and have ratified 13th, 14th, and
15th Amendments, Jim Crow begins
1890 – Wounded Knee; Closure of the West (frontier closed),
Sherman-Antitrust Act
1892 – People’s Party (Populist Third Party) nationwide and run Weaver for Pres.
1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson
1898 – Spanish American War, beginning of imperialism, Philippines, Guam,
Puerto Rico acquired, imperialists vs anti-imperialists
1903 – Panama Canal construction begins
1912 – election of 1912
1917 – U.S. enters W.W.I. – Fourteen Points
1918 – W.W.I ends
1919 – First Red Scare
1920 – 19th Amendment (4th of 4 Progressive Amendments), Treaty of Versailles not ratified, U.S. does NOT join
League of Nations
1920s - more urban than rural, culture conflicts
1929 – Stock Market Crash and beginning of Great Depression
1933 – FDR’s New Deal begins (1930s-Great Depression)
1941 – Pearl Harbor, U.S. enters W.W.I.I.; Depression ends
1945 – end of W.W.I.I.; atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki;
beginning of Cold War (“iron curtain” descends)
1950 – Korean War begins
1953 – Korean War ends; armistice and DMZ
1954 – Brown v. Board of Education
1957 – Sputnik; beginning of space race
1963 – I have a dream; MLK; March on Washington, JFK assassinated
1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions, troops fighting in Vietnam War
beginning of LBJ’s Great Society, Civil Rights Act of 1964, conservative resurgence begins
1965 – Immigration Act reverse quotas, Civil Rights Movement
splinters as some question non-violent tactics of King
1968 – MLK and RFK assassinated, Tet Offensive, Chicago riot, silent majority elects Nixon, race riots, anti-war protests
escalates
1973 – Vietnam War ends with armistice
1974 – Watergate scandal leads to Nixon resigning before he’s impeached
1975 – Fall of Saigon (South Vietnam falls to North Vietnam, then Laos and Cambodia)
1980 – Election of Ronald Reagan; conservative
resurgence
1989 – Berlin Wall falls, end of Cold War with U.S. S.R.
2000 – election of George W. Bush, Bush vs Gore
2001 – September 11th attacks on Pentagon and World
Trade Center; Osama Bin Laden; Patriot Acts, Department of
Homeland Security, NSA
2008 – election of Barack Obama, the Great Recession of 2008
Magic Years and Eras… Specialty Cards Added to Skill Set Color Code White
HISTORICAL ERAS
Remember there are many ways to define eras…
but major turning points should be your
bookends no matter what.
Before Columbus Exploration and Colonization 1763
1492 is a major turning point; Columbus “discovered” America and the Columbian Exchange
began… 1754 was the beginning of the French and Indian War which ended in 1763.
1763 Revolutionary Era-Rebellion 1776
Proclamation Line of 1763 through Declaration of Independence (1776)
1775 Revolution & Independence 1783
Lexington and Concord to the Treaty of Paris and the Articles of Confederation
1783 Critical Era & the Constitution 1789
1783 – Patriots win and the United States begins under the AOC which is replaced with the
Constitution in 1789. Two years later Bill of Rights added.
1789 Early Republic 1815
Ratification of the Constitution through the end of the War of 1812
1815 Era of Good Feelings 1824
End of the War of 1812 … through the Corrupt Bargain election
1815 Antebellum Era & Economic Transformation 1860
Beginning of Market Revolution through the election of Abraham Lincoln
1820 Sectionalism Heats Up & Era of Common Man 1840
Missouri Compromise of 1820 through the election of 1840
1833 Era of Reforms & Manifest Destiny 1848
The Liberator goes into publication in 1833… through the end of the Mexican-American War
1861 Civil War & Reconstruction Era 1877
Fort Sumter through the Compromise of 1877 ending radical reconstruction
1868 Gilded Age - American Society in Transition 1896
Industrialization & Urbanization, Enclosure of the West, Rise of the Populists
election of U.S. Grant and completion of first transcontinental railroad …
through 1890 – West closed… through… 1896 Populist Party dissolves…
Magic Years and Eras… Specialty Cards Added to Skill Set Color Code White
HISTORICAL ERAS continued…
Remember there are many ways to define eras…
but major turning points should be your
bookends no matter what.
1898 America’s Rise to Power (Imperialism) 1917
Spanish-American War through U.S. entry into the First World War
1890 The Progressive Era 1920
Sherman Anti-Trust Act and Omaha Platform (populists) through the 19th Amendment
1914 The First World War (WWI) 1918
war erupts in 1914… through the U.S. entry in 1917… and then end of war in 1918
1919 Roaring 20’s & Jazz Age 1929
First Red Scare through the stock market crash of ‘29
1929 The Great Depression and New Deal 1941
stock market crash through the mobilization for WWII
1941 The Second World War (WWII) 1945
Pearl Harbor through Atomic Bombs
1945 Cold War Begins & Modern Civil Rights Movement Swells1960
end of the Second World War through the election of John F. Kennedy
1960 Cold War Continued & Decade of Protest/Change 1968
election of JFK through the election of Nixon (and Tet Offensive, MLK & RFK assassinated,
Dem. Convention riot, L.A. riot… 68 was a bad year…)
1964 Crisis and Conservative Resurgence 2000
(Conservative Resurgence, Stagnant Seventies, and Reagan Era)
Rise of Conservativism begins during 1964 Republican convention… culminates in election of
Reagan in 1980… continues through Clinton with Conservative Congress and the Contract with
America… ending with election of 2000
2000 Modern Times - The 21st Century present
election of 2000 (George W. Bush) through now!
