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10 Towns that Changed America | Timeline

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Congress ratifies the Bill of Rights.

1791
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Gold is discovered in California.

1848
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Dred Scott sues for his freedom and loses.

1857
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The American Civil War begins. The Virginia State Capitol (shown here in 1865) houses the Confederate government alongside the Virginia State Assembly.

1861
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The Civil War ends; Abraham Lincoln is assassinated.

1865
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The Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, completing the Transcontinental Railroad.

1869
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Much of Chicago is destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire.

1871
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Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.

1879
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The Statue of Liberty is dedicated.

1886
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The Wright Brothers achieve the first powered air flight.

1903
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Henry Ford introduces the Model T automobile.

1908
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The Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic Ocean.

1912
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The Panama Canal is completed.

1914
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Women gain the right to vote.

1920
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Charles Lindbergh flies across the Atlantic Ocean.

1927
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The stock market crashes.

1929
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Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.

1941
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“D-Day”: Allies invade Normandy, France.

1944
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The U.S. drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

1945
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A ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education desegregates schools.

1954
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Russia launches the Sputnik satellite.

1957
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John Glenn orbits Earth in the “Friendship 7” Mercury spacecraft.

1962
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President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

1963
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The U.S. lands on the moon.

1969
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Richard M. Nixon resigns.

1974
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The Vietnam War ends.

1975
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The Iran Hostage crisis begins.

1979
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The Eastern Bloc dissolves.

1989
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The World Trade Center is attacked.

2001
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The U.S. invades Iraq.

2003