US History Timeline

1607 Jamestown founded
1614 First tobacco shipped to England
1620 Mayflower landed
1691 Yorktown founded
1695 College of William and Mary founded
1699 Capital moves from Jamestown to Williamsburg
1750 Carter Burwell begins building Carter's Grove
1753 Carter's Grove completed
1759 George Washington moves into Mount Vernon
1773 Boston Tea Party occurred
1776 Declaration of Independence signed
1780 Capital moves from Williamsburg to Richmond, VA
1781 Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown
1783 Revolutionary War ends
1789 Constitution Written
1789 Supreme Court established under Article III of the Constitution
1789-97 Washington serves as President
1791 Bill of Rights added to Constitution
1792 Cornerstone laid for the President's House
1793 George Washington lays first cornerstone for the U.S. Capitol
1800 Capital moves to Washington, D.C.
1812 War with the British begins
1814 British attack and burn President's House and the Capitol
1817 President's House restored and painted white
1818 Arlington House Completed
1838 British scientist James Smithson donates half a million dollars to
"Found an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge"
1848 Construction of the Washington Monument begins on July 4th
1855 Smithsonian Castle completed
1861 Civil War begins
1863 Ford's Theatre built
1864 Arlington National Cemetery established
1865 President Lincoln is shot on April 14th at Ford's Theatre, and dies the next day
1865 Civil War ends
1869 Number of Supreme Court justices changes from six to nine
1870 15th Amendment allows African-Americans to vote
1885 Washington Monument dedicated
1886 First Coca-Cola sold
1901 President's House re-named the White House
1909 Oval Office built
1911 Natural History Museum completed
1917 US enters WWI
1920 19th Amendment allows women to vote
1922 Lincoln Memorial opens
1926 Williamsburg restoration begins
1929 Great Depression begins
1932 Tomb of the Unknowns dedicated
1933 FDR begins his Presidency
1941 Pearl Harbor bombed and US enters WWII
1941 National Gallery opens
1945 Battle of Iwo Jima
1945 WWII ends
1945 FDR dies
1948 Old Guard begins guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns
1950-53 American and United Nations troops fight in the Korean conflict
1954 United States Marine Corps Memorial dedicated
1959 First casualty of the Vietnam War
1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
1964 National Museum of American History opens
1968 Ford's Theatre re-opens to stage plays
1969 First man lands on moon
1975 Last casualty of the Vietnam War
1976 Air and Space Museum opens
1981 First woman justice, Sandra Day O'Connor, appointed
1981 First MTV broadcast
1982 Vietnam Wall dedicated
1989 The Berlin Wall comes down
1991 Statues of Lenin torn down and beheaded when the USSR collapses
1991 Persian Gulf War
1995 Korean Memorial dedicated
1997 FDR Memorial dedicated
1997 Newseum opens
2001 World Trade Center Towers destroyed by terrorists
2001 Pentagon damaged by terrorists

California History Timeline

1602 Spanish explored coast of California
1620 Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, MA
1769 Mission San Diego established by Junipero Sierra
1776 Declaration of Independence signed in Philadelphia
1803 President Jefferson acquires the Louisiana Purchase to expand the United States
1803 Lewis and Clark begin their expedition to map the
western expansion
1841 Sutter's Fort in use
1846 Donner Party tragedy while traveling over the
Sierra Nevada
1847 Gold is discovered at Sutter's Mill
1850 California becomes the 31st State
1854 Alcatraz Island becomes a Military Fortress
1860 Pony Express operates between Missouri and Sacramento
1869 Transcontinental Railroad is completed with the last spike laid in Promontory, Utah
1873 First cable car operated in San Francisco
1872 Custer's last stand happens at Little Bighorn
1873 Capitol building in Sacramento is completed
1906 San Francisco Earthquake
1917 US entered WWI
1928 Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse
1941 Pearl Harbor attacked; US enters WWII
1963 Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closed
1969 Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon
1973 Last Vietnam forces leave South Vietnam
1991 World Wide Web is opened up to civilian use for the first time
1997 NASA robot lands on Mars

Science Timeline - Earth & Life

1487 Bartholomeu Dias de Novaes becomes the first European explorer to see penguins.
1522 Magellan's ships circumnavigate the world.
1680 The Dodo bird lived on the Mauritius Islands, was large, slow, couldn't fly, and had no natural
enemies. This made the Dodo easy prey for explorers and dogs that came to the island.
By 1680, the Dodo was extinct.
1768 The Stellar's sea cow, a relative of the manatee, is hunted to extinction.
1794 Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin.
1831 Cyrus McCormick develops the first commercially successful reaper.
1870 Jules Verne writes "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".
1910 The mountain nyala is first documented: placed on endangered list in 1984.
1936 The Tasmanian Tiger of Australia was a marsupial, carrying its young in a pouch.
European settlers began hunting it in the 1700's and by 1936, it was extinct.
1943 Jacques Cousteau invents the aqualung diving apparatus.
1951 The HMS Challenger discovers Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench.
1959 Antarctic Treaty is signed making it illegal to harm penguins.
1967 Manatees are placed on the endangered species list.
1967 Alligators are placed on the endangered species list.
1968 Number of Polar Bears drops to 10,000.
1970s The cotton-topped tamarin is placed on the endangered list.
1977 Sea Otters are placed on the endangered species list.
1972 Polar Bears become protected under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.
1973 Congress passes the Endangered Species Act to help save species facing the risk of extinction.
1974 Sea World in Orlando opens to the public.
1982 Epcot's The Land Pavilion opens October 1st.
1985 Underwater exploration vessel Jason finds and documents the wreck of the Titanic.
1986 Penguin Encounter exhibit opens at Sea World.
1986 Epcot's The Living Seas exhibit opens January 15.
1987 On Sept. 9, a satellite picture of Amazon River Basin shows a total of 7,603 fires
burning in the rainforest.
1987 Alligators are removed from the endangered species list. They are now a protected species.
1988 One of the worst droughts in U.S. history hits Midwestern farmers.
1989 Florida law forbids the release of more than 10 lighter-than-air balloons at one time, an effort to protect marine creatures mistaking the balloons for food.
1989 Farmers begin to use low-input sustainable agriculture (LISA) techniques to
decrease chemical applications.
1990 New legislation helps reduce the number of dolphins killed.
1993 Florida law levies fines against anyone caught intentionally littering with plastic fishing gear or lines.
1993 Bald Eagles in the lower 48 states are moved from the endangered species list and now are
considered threatened.
1998 Animal Kingdom® park opens at Disney World in April.
2001 The Florida manatee population is estimated to be 3,276.

Science Timeline - Physics & Space

1450 Guttenberg's movable type press is first used.
1665 Sir Isaac Newton observed an apple fall and developed the laws of gravity and motion.
1701 Coal is first discovered in Virginia.
1752 Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning was electricity in his famous kite experiment.
1839 Edmund Becquerel, a French physicist, first discovers photovoltaic, or solar power.
1860 The first pipeline to carry crude oil in the U.S. was located in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
1861 The Western Union builds the first transcontinental telegraph line.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.
1903 On December 17, the Wright brothers made the first successful airplane flight: 120 feet in 12 seconds.
1930 Pluto, the smallest and farthest planet in our solar system, was discovered by scientists.
1947 On October 14, Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier, flying at 670 mph.
1962 John Glenn became the first person to orbit the earth.
1962 The Museum of Science and Industry first opens.
1961 On May 5, Alan Shepard, Jr. became the first American in space.
His 115-mile flight lasted 15 minutes, 22 seconds.
1969 The original Haunted House at Disneyland in CA opens.
1969 Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. became the first people to walk on the moon.
1972 The first public demonstration of the internet (ARPAnet) was given.
1971 The Magic Kingdom® opens on October 1st in Orlando, FL.
1975 Space Mountain opens.
1977 The Energy Department is established which coordinates national energy
policies and conservation programs.
1980 Big Thunder Mountain is completed.
1982 Spaceship Earth exhibit at Epcot® opens October 1.
1983 On June 18, Sally Ride became the first woman astronaut in space.
1986 On January 28, Christa McAuliffe was to be the first teacher in space, but seconds after takeoff,
the Challenger shuttle she was aboard exploded. She and the other crewmembers lost their lives.
1990 Scientists launch the Hubble telescope into space.
1995 Global Neighborhood exhibit opens November 23.
1997 Shannon Lucid spent 188 days aboard the space station Mir, making her the U.S. space
flight duration record holder.
1997 Construction begins on Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.
1998 Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin opens on September 7th.
1998 On November 7, John Glenn became the oldest astronaut to orbit the earth at the age of 76.
1999 Islands of Adventure opens to the public in May.
1999 The solar-powered Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon completes its non-stop trip around the world.