Timeline

1644 John Milton Aeropagitica

1734 John Peter Zenger Trial

1770 Boston Massacre

1773 Boston Tea Party

1774 First Continental Congress convenes

1775 American Revolution begins / Second Continental Congress convenes

1776 Declaration of Independence signed

1781 Articles of Confederation ratified

1784 American Revolutionary War ends

1787 Constitutional Congress opens / Constitution Adopted September 17

1788 Constitution ratified

1789 French Revolution

1791 Bill of Rights ratified

1798 Alien & Sedition Acts approved

1801 Alien & Sedition Acts expire

1803 Louisiana Purchase

1812 War of 1812

1846 U.S. / Mexican War

1848 Communist Manifesto published

1861 Civil War begins

1865 Civil War ends

1866 ex parte Milligan

1868 14th Amendment adopted

1898 Spanish-American War

1914 Archduke Ferdinand assassinated, WWI begins

1917 U.S. enters WWI / Espionage Act approved

1918 Masses Publishing trial / WWI ends

1919 Abrams v United States

1927 Whitney v. California

1929 Stock market crash/Great Depression begins

1939 WWII begins

1941 U.S. enters WWII

1945 WWII ends

1950 Korean War begins

1954 Brown v. Board of Education

1955 Montgomery ALA bus boycott

1957 USSR launches Sputnik

1960 “Heed Their Rising Voices” ad in New York Times / Lunch counter sit in, Greensborough NC

1963 JKF assassinated

1964 New York Times v. Sullivan

1964 Vietnam War begins (Gulf of Tonkin resolution)

1971 Pentagon Papers published June 13, 1971 / New York Times v United States

1973 U.S. leaves Vietnam