The original 13 colonies, first established by British settlers on the eastern seaboard in the 17th century, joined to wage a war for independence (1775–1781), which Britain recognized in 1783. The 1776 Declaration of Independence was followed by the writing of the world's first constitution. A century of westward expansion began. Following the victory of the northern states in the 1861–1865 Civil War, slavery was ended throughout the US, but Native Americans were dispossessed of their land in a series of conflicts.

• 1917 US enters World War I.
• 1929 New York stock market collapse; economic depression.
• 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; US enters World War II.
• 1950–1953 Korean War.
• 1950–1954 Senator Joe McCarthy investigates supposed communist sympathizers in witch hunt.
• 1954 Supreme Court rules racial segregation in schools to be unconstitutional. Blacks, seeking constitutional rights, start campaign of civil disobedience.
• 1959 Alaska, Hawaii become states.
• 1961 John F. Kennedy president. Promises aid to South Vietnam. US-backed invasion of Cuba defeated at Bay of Pigs.
• 1962 Soviet missile bases found on Cuba; resulting threat of nuclear war narrowly averted.
• 1963 Kennedy assassinated. Lyndon Baines Johnson president.
• 1964 US involvement in Vietnam stepped up. Civil Rights Act gives blacks constitutional equality.
• 1968 Martin Luther King is assassinated.
• 1969 Republican Richard Nixon takes office as president. Growing public opposition to Vietnam War.
• 1972 Nixon reelected. Makes historic visit to China.
• 1973 Withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam; 58,000 US troops dead by end of war.
• 1974 August, Nixon resigns following Watergate scandal over break-in to Democrat headquarters. Gerald Ford president.
• 1976 Democrat Jimmy Carter elected president.
• 1979 Seizure of US hostages in Iran.
• 1980 Ronald Reagan wins elections for Republicans. Adopts tough anticommunist foreign policy.
• 1983 Military invasion of Grenada.
• 1985 Air strikes against Libyan cities. Relations with USSR improve; first of three summits held.
• 1986 Iran–Contra affair revealed.
• 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by US and USSR.
• 1988 President George Bush Sr. wins presidency.
• 1989 US overthrows Panama's Gen. Noriega, then arrests him on narcotics charges.
• 1991 January–February, Gulf War against Iraq. US and USSR sign START arms reduction treaty.
• 1992 Black youths riot in Los Angeles and other cities. Bush–Yeltsin summit agrees further arms reductions. Democrat Bill Clinton defeats Bush in election.
• 1994 Midterm elections: Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
• 1995 Oklahoma bombing by Timothy McVeigh: over 160 die.
• 1998 Scandal over Clinton's affair with White House intern leads to impeachment proceedings. August, bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; revenge air strikes on Sudan and Afghanistan. December, air strikes against Iraq.
• 1999 February, Clinton acquitted in Senate impeachment trial. April, Columbine High School shootings by two students. March–June, NATO involvement to end Kosovo conflict, bombardment of Yugoslavia.
• 2000 Democrat Al Gore concedes tightest presidential election ever to Republican George W. Bush.
• 2001 January, President Bush takes office. September 11, world's worst terrorist attack kills thousands as hijacked planes destroy World Trade Center, damage Pentagon. October, US-led military action in "war on terrorism" begins with intensive aerial bombing campaign in Afghanistan. December, accounting scandal at Enron.
• 2002 July, WorldCom bankruptcy is biggest ever corporate collapse.
• 2003 Bush launches war on Iraq, despite lack of UN backing.

From "The Financial Times World Desk Reference" © Dorling Kindersley 2004