Our Nation - The United States of America

Timeline of the United States of America

1770
Golden Hill incident in which British troops wound civilians, including one death (January 19)
Lord North becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain (January 28)
Boston Massacre (March 5)

1771
Battle of Alamance in North Carolina (May 16)

1772
Samuel Adams organizes the Committees of Correspondence
Gaspée Affair (June 9)
The Watauga Association in what would become Tennessee declares itself independent.

1773
The Parliament passes the Tea Act (May 10)
Association of the Sons of Liberty in New York published by local Sons of Liberty (December 15)
Boston Tea Party (December 16)

1774
Benjamin Franklin, Massachusetts' agent in London, is questioned before Parliament
Dunmore's War
British pass Intolerable Acts, including:
Boston Port Act (March 31)
Administration of Justice Act (May 20),
Massachusetts Government Act (May 20),
A second Quartering Act (June 2), and
Quebec Act
The Powder Alarm, General Gage's secret raid on the Cambridge powder magazine (September 1)
The First Continental Congress meets; twelve colonies send delegates
Burning of the HMS Peggy Stewart (October 19)
Greenwich Tea Party (December 22)

1775
Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19)
Skenesboro, NY (now Whitehall, NY) captured by LT Samuel Herrick. (May 9)
Fort Ticonderoga captured by Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold and the Green Mountain Boys. (May 10)
Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17)
The Second Continental Congress meets
Olive Branch Petition sent to King George III
Henry Knox transported fifty-nine captured cannon (taken from Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Crown Point) from upstate New York to Boston, MA. Trip took 56 days to complete. (Dec. 05, 1775 to Jan. 24,1776)

1776
New Hampshire ratifies the first state constitution
Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense (January 10)
Battle of Nassau (March 3–4)
The Second Continental Congress enacts a resolution declaring independence from the British Empire (July 2)
The Declaration of Independence signed (July 4)
Battle of Long Island, a.k.a. Battle of Brooklyn (August 27)
British prison ships begin in Wallabout Bay, New York
Staten Island Peace Conference (September 11)
Landing at Kip's Bay (September 15)
Battle of Harlem Heights (September 16)
Great Fire of New York (September 21–22)
Nathan Hale captured and executed for espionage (September 22)
Battle of Valcour Island (October 11)
Battle of White Plains (October 29)
Battle of Fort Washington (November 16)
Battle of Fort Lee (November 19)
Battle of Iron Works Hill (December 23-December 26)
Battle of Trenton (December 26)

1777
Second Battle of Trenton (January 2)
Battle of Princeton (January 3)
Forage War
Battle of Bound Brook (April 13)
Middlebrook encampment (May 28-July 2)
Fort Ticonderoga abandoned by the Americans due to advancing British troops placing cannon on Mount Defiance. (July 5)
British retake Fort Ticonderoga. (July 6)
Battle of Hubbardton (July 7, 1777)
Delegates in Vermont, which was not one of the Thirteen Colonies, establish a republic and adopt (July 8) a constitution—the first in what is now the territory of the United States to prohibit slavery. (Vermont would become the fourteenth state in 1791.)
Battle of Short Hills (July 26)
Battle of Oriskany (August 6)
Battle of Bennington (August 16)
Battle of Brandywine (September 11)
Battle of Paoli (Paoli Massacre) (September 20)
British occupation of Philadelphia (September 26)
Battle of Germantown (October 4)
Two Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7) conclude with the surrender of the British army under General Burgoyne.
Battle of Red Bank (October 22)
Articles of Confederation adopted by the Second Continental Congress (November 15)
Battle of White Marsh (December 5-December 8)
Battle of Matson's Ford (December 11)

1777-1778
Continental Army in winter quarters at Valley Forge (December 19-June 19)

1778
Treaty of Alliance with France (February 6)
Battle of Barren Hill (May 20)
British occupation of Philadelphia ends (June)
Battle of Monmouth (June 28)

1778-1779
Continental Army in winter quarters at Middlebrook encampment (November 30-June 3)
Battle of Stony Point (July 16)
Battle of Paulus Hook (August 19)

1779-1780
Continental Army in winter quarters at Morristown (December-May)

1780
A stockade known as Fort Nashborough is founded on the banks of the Cumberland River. Two years later the site is renamed Nashville. (January 28 )
Some 8,000 British forces under General Henry Clinton arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, from New York. (February 1)
New York cedes to Congress its western claims, including territory west of Lake Ontario. In 1792 New York will sell the Erie Triangle to Pennsylvania (February 1)
Bombardment of Fort Charlotte: After a two-week siege, Spanish general, colonial governor of Louisiana, and Viceroy of New Spain Bernardo de Gálvez captures Fort Charlotte, taking the port of Mobile (in present-day Alabama) from the British. Fort Charlotte was the last remaining British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans in Spanish Louisiana. Its fall drove the British from the western reaches of West Florida and reduced the British military presence in West Florida to its capital, Pensacola. (March 14)
Siege of Charleston: British Army troops under General Henry Clinton and naval forces under Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot besiege Charleston, South Carolina. British ships sail past Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island to occupy Charleston Harbor. Washington will order reinforcements to Charleston, but the city falls on May 12 in what is arguably the worst American defeat of the war. (April 8)
Siege of Charleston: Fort Moultrie falls to the British. (May 6)
Siege of Charleston: American General Benjamin Lincoln surrenders Charleston to the British. The British lose 255 men while capturing a large American garrison. (May 12)
Battle of Waxhaws: A clash between Continental Army forces under Abraham Buford and a mainly Loyalist force led by Banastre Tarleton occurs near Lancaster, South Carolina in the Waxhaws area (close to present-day Buford). The British destroyed the American forces. (May 29)
Battle of Connecticut Farms (June 6)
Battle of Springfield. With the attempted British invasion of New Jersey was stopped at Connecticut Farms and Springfield, major fighting in the North ends. (June 23)
John André captured and the treason of Benedict Arnold is exposed (September 23)
Battle of Kings Mountain (October 7)

1781
Articles of Confederation ratified (March 1)
Battle of Cowpens (January 17)
Battle of Guilford Court House (March 15)
The British surrender at Yorktown (October 19)
Bank of North America chartered (December 31)

1782
The British government officially, yet informally, recognizes American independence.

1783
The Treaty of Paris (1783) ends the American Revolutionary War (September 3)
The British withdraw from ports in New York and the Carolinas

1784
"The state of Frankland," later known as Franklin, secedes from North Carolina

1785
Treaty of Hopewell (November 28)
Congress refuses admission of Franklin to the Union

1786
Shays' Rebellion
Annapolis Convention fails

1787
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey ratify the constitution

1788
North Carolina reconquers Franklin, which ceases to exist.
Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia and New York ratify the constitution

1789
United States presidential election
Constitution goes into effect
George Washington is inaugurated as President in New York
The First United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act of 1789 and Hamilton tariff
Jay-Gardoqui Treaty
North Carolina becomes the 12th state to ratify the Constitution, with a vote of 194-77 (November 21)