Founding Era
The Civil War
Inventions & Icons
20th Century Pop
The 50 States
100
He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and later became the third U.S. President.
Thomas Jefferson
100
This U.S. President delivered the Gettysburg Address in November 1863.
Abraham Lincoln
100
Known as the "Wizard of Menlo Park," he patented the incandescent light bulb and the phonograph.
Thomas Edison
100
He became the youngest elected U.S. President in 1960, famous for his "New Frontier" programs.
John F. Kennedy
100
It is the largest U.S. State by land area, purchased from Russia in 1867.
Alaska
200
This 1773 Boston protest involved throwing 342 chests of tea into the harbor to protest "taxation without representation."
The Boston Tea Party
200
The first shots of the Civil War were fired in April 1861 at this fort in South Carolina.
Fort Sumter
200
These brothers made history's first controlled, sustained, power-driven airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903.
Wright Brothers (Orville and Wilbur)
200
This 1969 music festival in New York drew over 400,000 people and became a defining moment for the counterculture generation.
Woodstock
200
This peninsula was acquired by the U.S. from Spain via the Adams-Onís Treaty.
Florida
300
This document, ratified in 1781, served as the United States' first framework of government before being replaced by the Constitution.
What are the Articles of Confederation?
300
This Union General accepted Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.
Ulysses S. Grant
300
He revolutionized manufacturing by introducing the moving assembly line for his Model T automobile.
Henry Ford
300
This civil rights leader delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington in 1963.
Martin Luther King Jr.
300
This state was an independent republic for nine years before being annexed by the United States in 1845.
Texas
400
He was the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, famous for his wit and his experiments with electricity.
Benjamin Franklin
400
Issued on January 1, 1863, this executive order declared "that all persons held as slaves" within rebel states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
The Emancipation Proclamation
400
This massive monument, sculpted by Gutzon Borglum in South Dakota, features the faces of four iconic U.S. Presidents.
Mount Rushmore
400
In 1974, he became the only U.S. President in history to resign from office.
Richard Nixon
400
Formed entirely of islands, it became the 50th U.S. state in August 1959.
Hawaii
500
General Washington led his troops across this icy river on Christmas night 1776 to launch a surprise attack on Trenton.
The Delaware River
500
This legendary nurse during the Civil War later went on to found the American Red Cross in 1881.
Clara Barton
500
This structure, completed in 1937, spans a 1-mile-wide strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
Golden Gate Bridge
500
This federal agency was established in 1958 by President Eisenhower in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik.
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
500
This state is known as the "First State" because it was the very first to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 7, 1787.
Delaware