Founding Era
The document adopted on July 4, 1776.
Declaration of Independence
The president during most of the Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln
The 1803 land deal that doubled the size of the U.S.
Louisiana Purchase
The global conflict from 1939–1945.
World War II
The first President of the United States.
George Washington
The first 10 amendments to the Constitution are known as this.
Bill of Rights
The 1863 order that declared slaves in rebelling states “forever free.”
Emancipation Proclamation
The 1846–1848 war that added huge territory to the U.S. (including parts of the Southwest).
Mexican-American War
The U.S. stock market crash that helped trigger the Great Depression.
1929 Crash
The president who purchased Louisiana in 1803.
Thomas Jefferson
The meeting in 1787 that produced the U.S. Constitution.
Constitutional Convention
The amendment that abolished slavery nationwide.
13th Amendment
The 1862 law offering settlers land if they lived on and improved it.
Homestead Act
Roosevelt’s 1930s programs to fight the Great Depression were known as this.
New Deal
The only U.S. president to resign from office.
Richard Nixon
This compromise created a Congress with two houses: one based on population and one with equal state representation.
Great (Connecticut) Compromise
The 1863 battle often called the “high-water mark” of the Confederacy.
Battle of Gettysburg
The 1869 railroad project completed at Promontory Summit, Utah.
Transcontinental Railroad
The 1935 law that created retirement benefits for many Americans.
Social Security Act
The president elected to four terms during the Great Depression and WWII.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The essays written to support ratifying the Constitution, associated with Hamilton, Madison, and Jay.
Federalist Papers
The political deal tied to the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, often marking the end of Reconstruction.
Compromise of 1877
The 1887 law that broke up many Native American tribal lands into individual allotments.
Dawes Act
This 1944 law helped many WWII veterans pay for college and buy homes.
GI Bill
The only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
Grover Cleveland