Agricultural revolution transforms Native American life

Dutch investors create permanent settlements along Hudson River, James I, king of England, dissolves Virginia Company

First Navigation Act passed by Parliament

Second Navigation (Staple) Act passed

Plantation duty imposed to close loopholes in commercial regulations

Parliament establishes Board of Trade

Parliament passed the Sugar Act to collect American revenue

Stamp Act received support of the House of Commons (March), Stamp Act Congress met in New York City (October)

Stamp Act repealed the same day that the Declaratory Act became law (March)

Townshend Revenue Acts stir American anger (June-July)

Massachusetts assembly refuses to rescind circular letter (February)

Parliament repeals all Townshend duties except one on tea (March)

Lord North’s government passes Tea Act (May), Bostonians hold Tea Party (December)

States fail to ratify proposed Impost tax

Congress approves Hamilton's plan for funding and assumption (July)

Bank of the United States is chartered (February), Hamilton's Report on Manufactures rejected by Congress (December)

Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin

Boston Manufacturing Company founds cotton mill at Waltham, Massachusetts

Financial panic is followed by a depression lasting until 1823

Santa Fe opened to American traders

Erie Canal completed; Canal Era begins

Congress passes “tariff of abominations”

Jackson vetoes the Maysville Road bill

American railroads begin commercial operation

Jackson vetoes the bill rechartering the Bank of the United States

Crisis erupts over South Carolina's attempt to nullify the tariff of 1832

Jackson removes federal deposits from the Bank of the United States

Cyrus McCormick patents mechanical reaper

Jackson issues “specie circular”

John Deere invents steel plow, financial panic occurs, followed by depression lasting until 1843

Congress passes the Independent Subtreasury Bill

Mexico closes Santa Fe trade to Americans

Samuel F. B. Morse demonstrates the electric telegraph

Cotton prices rise, and a sustained boom commences

First oil well drilled near Titusville, Pennsylvania

Cotton prices and production reach all-time peak

Transcontinental railroad completed at Promontory, Utah,

Congress passes Specie Resumption Act 1867 National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (the Grange) founded to enrich farmers' lives

Hatch Act provides funds for establishment of agricultural experiment stations

Financial panic plunges nation into depression

Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

Thomas A. Edison invents the incandescent lamp

Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company becomes nation's first trust; Edison opens first electric generating station in New York

American Economic Association formed to advocate government intervention in economic affairs

Railroads adopt standard gauge

Edward Bellamy promotes idea of socialist utopia in Looking Backward, 2000-1887, Cleveland calls for lowering of tariff duties

National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union formed to address problems of farmers

Economic depression begins

J. P. Morgan announces formation of U.S. Steel Corporation, nation's first billion-dollar company

Republican-dominated “Billion-Dollar” Congress enacts McKinley Tariff Act, Sherman Antitrust Act, and Sherman Silver Purchase Act, Farmers' Alliance adopts the Ocala Demands

Financial panic touches off depression lasting until 1897, Sherman Silver Purchase Act repealed

Coxey's army marches on Washington

Gold discovered in Alaska, Dingley Tariff Act raises tariff duties

Mergers and consolidations begin to sweep the business world, leading to fear of trusts

Gold Standard Act establishes gold as standard of currency

Roosevelt sues the Northern Securities Company for violation of Antitrust Act

Ford Motor Company formed

Hepburn Act strengthens ICC

Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act divides Republican party

Mann-Elkins Act passed to regulate railroads

Underwood Tariff Act lowers rates, Federal Reserve Act reforms U.S. banking system, Sixteenth Amendment authorizes Congress to collect taxes on incomes, Ford introduces the moving assembly line in Highland Park, Michigan plant

Clayton Act strengthens antitrust legislation

Federal Aid Roads Act creates national road network, New York Zoning Law sets the pattern for zoning laws across the nation

War Industries Board established (July)

Budget Bureau set up to oversee federal spending

Coolidge vetoes farm price-control bill

Emergency Banking Relief Act passed in one day (March)

Securities and Exchange Commission authorized (June)

Works Progress Administration (WPA) hires unemployed (April), Congress passes Social Security Act (August)

Wagner Act grants workers collective bargaining (July)

Roosevelt recession begins (August)

Congress sets minimum wage at forty cents an hour (June)

President Kennedy forces U.S. Steel to roll back price hike (April)

President Johnson declares war on poverty (January)

Congress enacts Medicare and Medicaid (July)

President Nixon freezes wages and prices for 90 days (August)

Sales of imported cars, mainly from Japan, surpass 2 million a year for first time

Congress approves loan of $1.5 billion to rescue the ailing Chrysler Corporation (December)

Prime lending rate hits all-time peak of 21.5 percent

Unemployment reaches postwar record high of 10.4 percent (October)