Us timeline - Timeline

- Captain John Smith explorer and founder of Jamestown

Hundreds of thousands of Africans brought over and sold into slavery to work on cotton and tobacco plantations.

Britain gains control of territory up to the Mississippi river following victory over France in Seven Years' War.

American Revolution: George Washington leads colonist Continental Army to fight against British rule

4 July - Thomas Jefferson's American Declaration of Independence endorsed by Congress; colonies declare independence

War of 1812-15 between the US and Britain, partly over the effects of British restrictions on US trade during the Napoleonic Wars.

Opponents of slavery, or abolitionists, set up Republican Party

Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln elected president

Lincoln is declaring slaves in Confederate states to be free.

Women given the right to vote under the Nineteenth Amendment

13 million people become unemployed after the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929 triggers what becomes known as the Great Depression

Japanese warplanes attack US fleet in Hawaii. US declares war on Japan. Germany declares war on US