Turning Points in American History

1617 the Great Epidemic

1619 Land of the Free? Slavery Begins

1636 Freedom of Worship — Roger Williams

1654 Yearning to Breathe Free — Immigration

1676 Near Disaster — King Philip's War

1735 Freedom of the Press — The Zenger Trial

1773 Liberty! The Boston Tea Party

1776 We're Outta Here — Declaring Independence

1777 Game Changer — The Battle of Saratoga

1786 Toward a Constitution — Shays's Rebellion

1789 Samuel Slater — The Industrial Revolution

1800 Peaceful Transfer — The Election of 1800

1803 Supreme Authority — Marbury V. Madison

1807 on the Move — Transportation Revolution

1816 One Man, One Vote — Expanding Suffrage

1821 Reborn — The Second Great Awakening

1831 the Righteous Crusade — Abolition

1844 What's New? The Communication Revolution

1845 the Ultimate American Game — Baseball

1846 Land and Gold — The Mexican War

1862 Go West, Young Man! The Homestead Act

1862 Terrible Reality — The Battle of Antietam

1868 Equal Protection — The 14th Amendment

1872 Open Spaces — The National Parks

1873 Bloody Sunday — Ending Reconstruction

1876 How the West Was Won and Lost — Custer

1886 the First Red Scare — Haymarket

1898 the End of Isolation — War With Spain

1900 the Promised Land — The Great Migration

1901 That Damned Cowboy! Theodore Roosevelt

1903 the Second Transportation Revolution

1909 the Scourge of the South — Hookworm

1917 Votes for Women! The 19th Amendment

1919 Strikes and Bombs — The Year of Upheaval

1933 Bold Experimentation — The New Deal

1939 Einstein's Letter — The Manhattan Project

1942 Surprise — The Battle of Midway

1945 the Land of Lawns — Suburbanization

1948 the Berlin Airlift and the Cold War

1950 Tuning in — The Birth of Television

1960 the Power to Choose — The Pill

1963 Showdown in Birmingham — Civil Rights

1968 Losing Vietnam — The Tet Offensive

1969 Disaster — The Birth of Environmentalism

1974 an Age of Crisis — Watergate

1975 the Digital Age — The Personal Computer

1989 Collapse — The End of the Cold War

2001 the Age of Terror — The 9/11 Attacks