1776 → today
250 years in {n} moments
Every milestone from the six chapters, on one timeline. Filter by chapter to follow a single thread through history.
Photo: John Trumbull · Public domain
A new republic
Independence, a written Constitution, and a young country that expands west and begins to invent.
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1776
Declaration of Independence
The Continental Congress declares independence from Britain, stating that governments draw their power from the consent of the governed.
Democracy -
1787
Constitution signed
On September 17, delegates in Philadelphia sign the Constitution after four months of debate. It takes effect in 1788 and the new government starts in 1789.
Democracy -
1791
First Bank of the United States
Hamilton's national bank opens. It acts as the Treasury's financial agent, holds public money and issues paper currency.
Economy -
1791
Bill of Rights
Ten of twelve proposed amendments, protecting speech, religion, the press and fair trials, take effect on December 15.
Democracy
Union and industry
The Civil War ends slavery. Railroads, steel, electricity and mass immigration turn the US into the world's largest economy.
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1863
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln declares enslaved people in the Confederate states free and opens the Union Army and Navy to Black men.
Democracy -
1865
13th Amendment
Slavery and involuntary servitude are abolished throughout the United States.
Democracy -
1870
15th Amendment
The right to vote can no longer be denied because of race, color or previous enslavement, though many states find ways around it.
Democracy -
1872
Yellowstone becomes a national park
President Grant signs the law creating Yellowstone, widely seen as the first national park in the world.
Culture -
1879
A practical light bulb
Thomas Edison's Menlo Park team develops the first practical incandescent lamp, and in 1882 opens New York's Pearl Street power station.
Innovation -
1884
Huckleberry Finn is published
Mark Twain's novel, written in the voice of a Mississippi River boy, becomes a founding text of modern American fiction.
Culture -
1901
The birth of US Steel
Andrew Carnegie sells his steel company to J. P. Morgan for $480 million. It becomes the core of the new United States Steel Corporation.
Economy -
1903
First powered flight
Orville Wright flies the Wright Flyer for 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Wilbur later flies 852 feet the same morning.
Innovation -
1913
The moving assembly line
Ford introduces the moving assembly line at Highland Park, Michigan, cutting the time to build a Model T from 12.5 hours to 93 minutes.
Economy
Into the world
Two world wars, the Great Depression and the New Deal. America emerges in 1945 as a superpower.
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1917
The first jazz record
The Original Dixieland Jass Band records "Livery Stable Blues" in New York, the first jazz record ever released.
Culture -
1920
19th Amendment
Women gain the right to vote nationwide. The amendment is nicknamed the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.
Democracy -
1930
First American Nobel in Literature
Sinclair Lewis becomes the first American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Culture -
1944
Bretton Woods
Delegates from 44 nations create the IMF and World Bank at a conference in New Hampshire, with the dollar at the center of the new system.
Economy -
1944
Borlaug goes to Mexico
Norman Borlaug joins a Rockefeller Foundation and Mexican government wheat program, starting work that grows into the Green Revolution.
Science -
1945
Surrender in Tokyo Bay
On 2 September Admiral Chester Nimitz signs Japan's surrender for the United States aboard the battleship USS Missouri.
Security -
1945
The Endless Frontier
Vannevar Bush's report urges peacetime federal funding for basic research, setting the pattern for postwar science policy.
Innovation -
1945
UN Charter
Delegates from 50 countries sign the United Nations Charter in San Francisco on June 26.
Democracy
The Cold War era
Alliances, the space race, civil rights and the birth of the computer age, all under the shadow of rivalry with the Soviet Union.
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1946
ENIAC unveiled
The Army-funded electronic computer at the University of Pennsylvania is announced to the public.
Innovation -
1947
The transistor
Bardeen and Brattain build the first transistor at Bell Labs. With Shockley, they win the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Innovation -
1947
Jackie Robinson breaks the color line
Robinson plays his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, opening Major League Baseball to Black players.
Culture -
1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The UN General Assembly adopts the declaration with no votes against, after drafting led by Eleanor Roosevelt.
Democracy -
1949
NATO is founded
Twelve countries from Europe and North America sign the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington on 4 April.
Security -
1950
Eisenhower takes command
In December NATO names General Dwight D. Eisenhower its first Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
Security -
1955
Polio vaccine licensed
Jonas Salk's inactivated polio vaccine is licensed in the United States. US cases fall sharply over the next few years.
Science -
1956
Armstrong in the Gold Coast
Louis Armstrong performs in the Gold Coast, soon to become independent Ghana, his first, unofficial, trip as a musical ambassador.
Culture -
1958
ARPA is created
Responding to Sputnik, the Defense Department founds the agency now called DARPA to fund bold, high-risk research.
Innovation -
1959
Ella Fitzgerald at the first Grammys
Fitzgerald wins two awards at the first Grammy Awards, becoming the first African American woman to win a Grammy.
Culture -
1961
A warning from a general
In his farewell address, President Eisenhower warns against the "unwarranted influence" of the military-industrial complex.
Security -
1964
Civil Rights Act
Segregation in public places and discrimination in employment are outlawed.
Democracy -
1965
Voting Rights Act
Literacy tests are banned and federal oversight of voting rules begins in places with a history of discrimination.
Democracy -
1969
ARPANET's first message
On October 29, UCLA sends the first message to the Stanford Research Institute: "LO" before the system crashes.
Innovation -
1969
Apollo 11 lands
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon. Ten more Americans follow by 1972.
Science -
1971
The gold window closes
On August 15, President Nixon ends the right of foreign governments to swap dollars for gold at $35 an ounce, opening the era of floating currencies.
Economy -
1972
Landsat begins
The first Landsat satellite launches, starting the longest continuous record of Earth's land from space.
Science -
1973
Hip-hop's birthday party
DJ Kool Herc plays a back-to-school party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, often named as the birth of hip-hop.
Culture -
1978
First GPS satellite
The first Navstar GPS satellite is launched. The full 24-satellite system is declared operational in 1995.
Innovation -
1979
Freedom of Navigation Program
The US begins formally challenging maritime claims it sees as excessive, through diplomatic protests and naval operations.
Security -
1979
Last homegrown polio case
The last case of wild polio caught inside the United States is recorded.
Science -
1983
McClintock's Nobel
Barbara McClintock wins an unshared Nobel Prize for discovering 'jumping genes', decades after her first findings.
Science -
1990
Hubble and the genome
Hubble launches in April, and the Human Genome Project begins its 13-year effort to read human DNA.
Science -
1991
The Gulf War
With Colin Powell as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US-led forces carry out Operation Desert Storm.
Security
The unipolar moment
The internet goes global, markets integrate, and 9/11 and two long wars test American power.
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2000
GPS opens up
President Clinton orders Selective Availability switched off, giving civilians worldwide much more accurate GPS.
Security -
2000
Crew arrives on the ISS
The first long-term crew arrives on the International Space Station on November 2. People have lived aboard ever since.
Science -
2001
Article 5 invoked
After the 11 September attacks, NATO invokes its mutual-defence clause for the first and only time.
Security -
2003
Genome and PEPFAR
The Human Genome Project announces its finished sequence in April. The same year, the US launches PEPFAR to fight HIV/AIDS.
Science -
2005
The mRNA breakthrough
Karikó and Weissman discover how modified mRNA avoids inflammation, the basis of COVID-19 vaccines and the 2023 Nobel Prize.
Innovation -
2006
South Korea halves its screen quota
Under pressure during free-trade talks with the US, South Korea cuts the days cinemas must show Korean films from 146 to 73.
Culture -
2009
Top natural gas producer
Shale drilling makes the US the world's largest producer of natural gas, a position it still holds.
Economy
A contested century
Smartphones, social media, AI and a rising China. It's a new era of competition, and of debate at home.
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2011
Operation Tomodachi
More than 24,000 US service members help Japan after its earthquake and tsunami.
Security -
2016
A songwriter wins the Nobel
Bob Dylan receives the Nobel Prize in Literature for new poetic expressions within the American song tradition.
Culture -
2018
Top oil producer
The US overtakes Russia to become the world's largest crude oil producer. Output reaches a record 13.6 million barrels a day in 2025.
Economy -
2021
Mars flight and Webb
Ingenuity makes the first powered flight on another planet, and the James Webb Space Telescope launches on Christmas Day.
Science -
2022
Sanctions on Russia's central bank
After Russia invades Ukraine, the Treasury bars Americans from transactions with Russia's central bank, freezing its assets held in the US or by US persons.
Economy -
2022
CHIPS Act and ChatGPT
Congress approves $52.7 billion for chip-making in August. In November, OpenAI releases ChatGPT to the public.
Innovation -
2023
First CRISPR therapy
The FDA approves Casgevy for sickle cell disease. Karikó and Weissman win the Nobel for work behind the mRNA vaccines.
Science -
2025
A 5% target
NATO allies agree to raise defence and security spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.
Security -
2025
Emergency tariffs
The president uses emergency powers (IEEPA) to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China and, through "reciprocal" tariffs, all trading partners.
Economy -
2025
A record year in orbit
The world attempts 329 orbital launches, 181 of them from the United States, the most ever by one country.
Innovation -
2025
A Korean-themed hit tops Netflix
KPop Demon Hunters, made by a US studio, becomes the most popular film in Netflix's history.
Culture -
2025
Grant terminations
NIH terminates hundreds of research grants and the White House proposes a 40% budget cut. Congress later keeps NIH funding roughly flat.
Science -
2026
New START expires
On 5 February the last treaty limiting US and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals runs out.
Security -
2026
Supreme Court ruling
On February 20, the Supreme Court rules 6-3 that IEEPA does not allow the president to impose tariffs.
Economy -
2026
New tariffs replace old
Temporary tariffs expire on July 24 and are replaced by new Section 301 tariffs. The average statutory tariff rate stands at 11.0% in August.
Economy