1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

1776
Signing of the Declaration of Independence

1781
U.S. banking begins when an act of Congress creates the Bank of North America.

1793
Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, which revives the slave economy in the South

1808
Congress prohibits the importing of African slaves

1830
Indian Removal Act moves eastern Indians west of the Mississippi

1837
Depression begins with the Panic of 1837

1865
Civil War ends; reconstruction of the old South begins

1879
Women lawyers permitted to argue cases before Supreme Court

1882
The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibits Chinese laborers from entering the U.S.

1901
Five Native American tribes granted U.S. citizenship

1920
19th Amendment gives women the right to vote

1929
Stock market crashes

1939
World War II begins in Europe

1955
Blacks boycott buses in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Supreme Court orders school desegregation

1963
President Kennedy assassinated

1964
Civil Rights Act signed by President Johnson

1988
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows gambling on reservations

2008
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act signed, establishing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)

2009
Barack Obama sworn in as 44th President of United States

2010
Enhancements to TARP initiative announced for Community Development Financial Institutions