United States

1,397 entries quoted from the Wikipedia articles written per year for United States, 1776 CE to 2025 CE. Each century below shows a sample spread across it; the year link on a line opens everything held for that year.

18th century

213 entries, 1776 CE to 1799 CE — 25 shown, spread across the century

1776July 8 – American Revolution: The Liberty Bell rings for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia.United States source
1776'Forks of the Tar' changes to Washington, North Carolina, being named in honor of George Washington.United States source
1776September 22 – American Revolution: Nathan Hale is executed by the British in New York City for espionage.United States source
1777May 9 – The first session of the North Carolina General Assembly of 1777 ends and charters Johnston County Court House as Smithfield.United States source
1777Colebrook Township, Pennsylvania is settled.United States source
1778November 26 – In the Hawaiian Islands, Capt. James Cook becomes the first European to land on Maui.United States source
1779July 24 – American Revolutionary War: American forces led by Commodore Dudley Saltonstall launch the Penobscot Expedition in what is now Castine, Maine, resulting in the worst naval defeat in U.S. military history until Pearl Harbor.United States source
1780Woodford Reserve bourbon whiskey distillery begins operation in Kentucky.United States source
1781June 3 – American Revolution – Jack Jouett begins a "midnight ride" to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of approaching British cavalry led by Banastre Tarleton who have been sent to capture themUnited States source
1782July 1 – American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.United States source
1783March 5 – Last celebration of Massacre Day in Boston, Massachusetts.United States source
1784January 14 – The Confederation Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain to end the American Revolutionary War.United States source
1784November 24 – Zachary Taylor, 12th president of the U.S. from 1849 to 1850 (died 1850)United States source
1786January 3 – The Treaty of Hopewell is signed between the United States of America and the Choctaw Nation.United States source
1786June 19 – Nathanael Greene, major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War (born 1742)United States source
1787August 27 – Charles DeWitt, planter and member of the landed gentry of late colonial Virginia (born 1727)United States source
1789March 4 – At Federal Hall in New York City, the 1st United States Congress meets and declares the new United States Constitution to be in effect.United States source
1789March 29 – Thomas Collins, President of Delaware, dies in office.United States source
1791Northwest Indian War (1785–1795)United States source
1792May 10 – Union Bank is founded in Boston. In 1925 it merges with State Street Trust Company, now known as the State Street CorporationUnited States source
1793January 9 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a gas balloon in the Western Hemisphere, from Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia to Deptford Township, New Jersey. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe are among the spectators.United States source
1794Nickajack Expedition, conflict between White frontiersmen and the Chickamauga CherokeeUnited States source
1795October 10 – Samuel Fraunces, restaurateur (born 1722)United States source
1797February 22 – The last invasion of Britain: An American colonel named William Tate leads French forces in a landing near Fishguard in Wales.United States source
1799January 30 – Congress passes the Logan Act, forbidding unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments, in response to George Logan's unofficial attempt to negotiate peace between the U.S. and France.United States source

19th century

781 entries, 1800 CE to 1899 CE — 25 shown, spread across the century

1800August 4 – The 2nd United States Census is conducted. It finds 5,308,483 people living in the U.S. of which 893,602 are slaves.United States source
1805June 11 – Detroit burns to the ground; most of the city is destroyed.United States source
1810Western Cherokees establish themselves between the White River and the Arkansas River in what is now Arkansas.United States source
1813The Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania is founded (the oldest continuously existing literary society in the United States).United States source
1818April 14 – United States Coast Survey operations suspended until August 9, 1832.United States source
1823February 28 – Johnson v. McIntosh decided in the Marshall Court, a landmark Supreme Court decision relating to enduring aboriginal title and tribal sovereignty in the United States.United States source
1826February 6 – First printing of James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans, in Philadelphia.United States source
1832October 8 – Washington Irving and Henry Leavitt Ellsworth arrive at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory (later Fort Gibson, Oklahoma) in the late morning hours. They leave the fort on October 10, with a small company of Rangers who escort them to the camp of Captain Jesse Bean who is waiting for them near the Arkansas River. Thus begins one of the first steps in the United States effort to remove the indigenous peoples of the Americas from their homes on the east coast in what would become known as the "Trail of Tears" some six years later.United States source
1836September 1 – Narcissa Whitman, one of the first white women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains, arrives at Walla Walla, Washington.United States source
1839March 23 – The Boston Morning Post first records the use of "OK".United States source
1843February 6 – The Virginia Minstrels perform the first minstrel show (Bowery Amphitheatre, New York City).United States source
1848November 1 – The first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merges with Boston University School of Medicine), opens in Boston, Massachusetts.United States source
1852Lowell, Indiana is incorporated.United States source
1856May 24 – Pottawatomie Massacre: A group of followers of radical abolitionist John Brown kill 5 pro-slavery supporters in Franklin County, Kansas.United States source
1858Abraham Lincoln and others observe Comet Donati.United States source
1862February 1 – Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic is published for the first time in the Atlantic Monthly.United States source
1867June 29 – Kidder massacre: A Sioux and Cheyenne war party kills U.S. Second Lieutenant Lyman Kidder, along with an Indian scout and ten enlisted men in Kansas.United States source
1870June 28 – Congress creates federal holidays (New Year's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day), initially applicable only to federal employees.United States source
1873July 21 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American West (US$3,000 from the Rock Island Express).United States source
1877March 4 – Romualdo Pacheco of California takes office as the first Latino to serve in the United States Congress.United States source
1880May 11 – Mussel Slough Tragedy: A land dispute between the Southern Pacific Railroad and settlers in Hanford, California, turns deadly when a gun battle breaks out, leaving 7 dead.United States source
1883January 19 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service in Roselle, New Jersey (it was built by Thomas Edison).United States source
1888G.D. Searle by Gideon Daniel Searle in Omaha, Nebraska.United States source
1891March 3 – Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, predecessor of Shoshone National Forest, in Wyoming is established as the first United States National Forest.United States source
1896February 6–August 12 – Yaqui Uprising in Arizona and Mexico.United States source

20th century

392 entries, 1900 CE to 1999 CE — 25 shown, spread across the century

1900January 2 – John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.United States source
1901February 5 – In Evansville, Indiana, a fire burns through the business district, causing $175,000 of damage.United States source
1903November 2 – Lyceum Theatre (Broadway) opens, making it the oldest continuously operating legitimate theater in New York City.United States source
1905March 10 – In Cleveland, Ohio, Cassie Chadwick is sentenced for 14 years in prison for fraud.United States source
1907April 26 – Opening of the Jamestown Exposition at Sewell's Point, Virginia by President Theodore Roosevelt, exactly 300 years to the day of the landing of Captain Christopher Newport and the English colonists at Cape Henry. The exposition is held until December 1st, and celebrates the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.United States source
1908January 1 – Georgia introduces a law prohibiting alcohol.United States source
1909November – New York shirtwaist strike of 1909 begins.United States source
1912May 1 – ʻAbdu'l-Bahá lays the cornerstone for the Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.United States source
1914September 26 – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is established by the Federal Trade Commission Act.United States source
1916October 16 – Margaret Sanger opens a family planning and birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the first of its kind in the U.S., a forerunner of Planned Parenthood. Nine days later, she is arrested for breaking a New York state law prohibiting distribution of contraceptives. This same year, she publishes What Every Girl Should Know, providing information about such topics as menstruation and sexuality in adolescents.United States source
1918March 4 – A soldier at Camp Funston, Kansas falls sick with the first confirmed case of the Spanish flu.United States source
1920January 5 – 1920 United States census count begins. This becomes the first census to record a population exceeding 100 million, at 106,021,537. Because there are so many mixed-race persons and because so many Americans with some black ancestry appear white, the Census Bureau stops counting mixed-race peoples and the one-drop rule becomes the national legal standard.United States source
1923April 9 – Adkins v. Children's Hospital: The Supreme Court rules that a minimum wage law for women and minors is unconstitutional.United States source
1925March 18 – The Tri-State Tornado rampages through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, killing 695 people and injuring 2,027. It hits the towns of Murphysboro, Illinois; Gorham, Illinois; Ellington, Missouri; and Griffin, Indiana. The storm's damage path is indicated at 378 km (235 mi).United States source
1929May 20 – The Wickersham Commission begins its investigation of alcohol prohibition in the United States.United States source
1932November 8 – U.S. presidential election, 1932: Democratic Governor of New York Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory, having promised a New Deal and repeal of Prohibition.United States source
19354 million members of trade unions in the U.S.United States source
1937May 6 – Hindenburg disaster: The German airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey.United States source
1940May 18 – The 6.9 Mw El Centro earthquake affects California's Imperial Valley with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), causing nine deaths and twenty injuries. Financial losses are around $6 million. Significant damage also occurs in Mexicali, Mexico.United States source
1944September 5 – The 5.8 Mw Cornwall–Massena earthquake affects the northern New York town of Massena at the Canada–United States border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), causing $2 million in damage, but no deaths. Across the border, Cornwall, Ontario suffers greater damage.United States source
1951November 22 – Paramount Pictures releases George Pal science fiction film When Worlds Collide.United States source
1956June 5 – Elvis Presley performs "Hound Dog" on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements.United States source
1964April 22 – The 1964 New York World's Fair opens to celebrate the 300th anniversary of New Amsterdam being taken over by British forces under the Duke of York (later King James II) and being renamed New York in 1664. The fair runs until October 18, 1964 and reopens April 21, 1965, finally closing October 17, 1965. Although not officially sanctioned as a world's fair, due to being within 10 years of the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, so that some countries decline to attend, many have pavilions with exotic crafts, art and food.United States source
1968June 5 – Leading 1968 Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy died from his injuries the next day.United States source
1980November 10 – November 12 – Voyager program: The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn, when it flies within 77,000 mi of the planet's cloud-tops and sends the first high resolution images of the world back to scientists on Earth.United States source

21st century

11 entries, 2001 CE to 2025 CE

2001October 23 – Apple releases the first iPod in the United States, revolutionizing the way people listen to music.United States source
2004February 4 – Mark Zuckerberg launches "TheFacebook", later renamed to Facebook, a social networking website for Harvard University students.United States source
2005August 29– At least 1,836 are killed, and severe damage is caused along the U.S. Gulf Coast, as Hurricane Katrina strikes coastal areas from Louisiana to Alabama, and travels up the entire state of Mississippi (flooding coast 31 ft), affecting most of eastern North America. Katrina becomes the costliest hurricane in U.S. history with $108 billion in damages. The New Orleans Saints football team will play their entire 2005 season on the road due to the effects of the hurricane.United States source
2011December 27 – Jocelyn Nungaray, murder victim (d. 2024)United States source
2013June 15 – North West, daughter of Kanye West and Kim KardashianUnited States source
2014September 26 – Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky, daughter of Chelsea Clinton and granddaughter of Bill and Hillary ClintonUnited States source
2017October 1 – Stephen Paddock opens fire on a crowd at the Route 91 Harvest music festival adjacent to the Mandalay Bay resort and casino at the Las Vegas Strip. 59 people were killed and 869 were injured, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.United States source
2019December 24 – An unnamed black rhino is born at Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, Michigan.United States source
2022February 24 – The Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 fall sharply in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Oil prices exceed $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014.United States source
2025March 5 – The US begins direct negotiations with Hamas over the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. Trump later threatens on Truth Social and X that the people of Gaza "are dead" unless they return the hostages "immediately".United States source
2025May 8 – American Robert Francis Prevost is elected pope during the 2025 conclave, becoming the first North American to hold the position. He chooses the name Leo XIV.United States source