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The event: Clara Barton, who had earned the respect and gratitude of the nation through her tireless work as a volunteer nurse during the Civil War, founded the American Red Cross in 1881.
A FORMER SCHOOLTEACHER and clerk in the U.S. Patent Office, Clara Barton was struck during the Civil War by the urgent need for an organization that could distribute food and medical supplies to troops. Believing the War Department and the U.S. Sanitary Commission, the two federal agencies in charge of such work, to be incapable of achieving efficiency, Barton worked as a volunteer with the Army, nursing the wounded and sick-often in the thick of battle-and soliciting and distributing supplies. Soldiers adored her, calling her the "angel of the battlefield."
After the war, Barton established an office to help families locate prisoners of war, missing men, and the dead buried in unmarked graves. Overwork and physical and emotional exhaustion threatened her health, prompting her to travel to Europe for a rest cure. She found in Europe precisely the kind of agency she had advocated during the Civil War: the International Committee of the Red Cross. Returning to the United States, Barton began a vigorous campaign to gain American acceptance for the Red Cross. In 1882, after years of work, the U.S. Senate ratified the Geneva Convention, which included an enabling provision for the American Association of the Red Cross. Barton served as the organization's first president, but her administrative role did not keep her from personally visiting disaster areas and battlefields. Victims of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood in 1889 and the 1893 hurricanes in the Georgia Sea Islands benefited from her direct assistance. During the Spanish-American War, Barton traveled to Cuba, but her work there brought to the forefront a problem with the Red Cross she herself had created. Those in Red Cross supervisory roles followed her example of reluctance to delegate authority and share responsibility. The result was a crippling administrative inefficiency, which finally compelled Barton to step down as president in 1904. She nevertheless continued to work in the aid of disaster and war victims until her death in 1912 at the age of ninety-one, and her shortcomings as an administrator paled beside the inestimable legacy of comfort, relief, and humanity she bequeathed to the nation's victims, civil and military.
| Leif Ericson Explores Vinland | 1 | |
| Columbus Reaches the Shores of the New World | 2 | |
| Coronado Searches for the Seven Cities of Gold | 4 | |
| Roanoke Becomes the "Lost Colony" | 5 | |
| Jamestown Is Founded | 6 | |
| Henry Hudson Looks for the Northwest Passage | 8 | |
| The First African Slaves Are Sold to Virginia Planters | 9 | |
| Pilgrims Settle at Plymouth | 11 | |
| Puritans Settle Massachusetts Bay | 14 | |
| Roger Williams Is Exiled to Rhode Island | 16 | |
| Marquette and Jolliet Explore the Mississippi | 17 | |
| Indian Chief King Philip Goes to War | 19 | |
| Nathaniel Bacon Launches His Rebellion | 21 | |
| William Penn Is Granted a Charter for Pennsylvania | 22 | |
| Salem Puts Accused Witches on Trial | 23 | |
| James Oglethorpe Is Granted a Charter for Georgia | 25 | |
| Jonathan Edwards Sparks the Great Awakening | 26 | |
| John Peter Zenger Is Acquitted | 27 | |
| The French and Indian War Begins | 29 | |
| Pontiac Launches His Rebellion | 32 | |
| King George III Declares a Proclamation Line | 34 | |
| Daniel Boone Breaches the Cumberland Gap | 36 | |
| The Jesuits Are Expelled from New Spain | 38 | |
| The Sons of Liberty Throw the Boston Tea Party | 41 | |
| The First Continental Congress Meets | 43 | |
| The American Revolution Begins | 44 | |
| Thomas Paine Publishes Common Sense | 47 | |
| Congress Adopts the Declaration of Independence | 48 | |
| Congress Adopts the Articles of Confederation | 50 | |
| Congress Passes the Northwest Ordinance | 51 | |
| The Federalist Papers Are Published | 52 | |
| The U.S. Constitution Is Adopted | 53 | |
| George Washington Is Elected the First President | 57 | |
| Congress Frames the Bill of Rights | 58 | |
| Eli Whitney Invents the Cotton Gin | 59 | |
| The XYZ Affair Leads to the Alien and Sedition Acts | 60 | |
| The Supreme Court Rules on Marbury v. Madison | 63 | |
| Thomas Jefferson Agrees to the Louisiana Purchase | 64 | |
| Lewis and Clark Launch an Expedition | 66 | |
| Robert Fulton Launches the Clermont | 68 | |
| The War of 1812 Begins | 70 | |
| Tecumseh Is Slain at the Battle of the Thames | 72 | |
| Andrew Jackson Defeats the Creek at Horseshoe Bend | 74 | |
| Work Begins on the Erie Canal | 76 | |
| The Panic of 1819 Strikes | 77 | |
| The Supreme Court Rules on McCulloch v. Maryland | 78 | |
| Henry Clay Engineers the Missouri Compromise | 79 | |
| James Monroe Announces a New Doctrine | 80 | |
| Andrew Jackson Is Elected President | 82 | |
| Abolitionists Establish the "Underground Railroad" | 84 | |
| Congress Passes the Indian Removal Act | 85 | |
| Nat Turner Rebels | 88 | |
| Black Hawk Goes to War | 89 | |
| The Nullification Crisis Occurs | 91 | |
| Cyrus McCormick Invents a Reaper; John Deere Invents a Steel Plow | 93 | |
| Texans Defend the Alamo | 94 | |
| Ralph Waldo Emerson Delivers "The American Scholar" Speech | 95 | |
| Marcus Whitman Crosses the Continent on the Oregon Trail | 97 | |
| James Fenimore Cooper Publishes The Deerslayer | 98 | |
| Dan Emmett Stages a New Minstrel Show | 99 | |
| Samuel F. B. Morse Invents the Telegraph | 101 | |
| Frederick Douglass Publishes His Autobiography | 102 | |
| The United States Annexes Texas | 103 | |
| John O'Sullivan Writes about "Manifest Destiny" | 104 | |
| The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club Writes the Rules of the Game | 106 | |
| The United States Declares War on Mexico | 108 | |
| The Mormons Migrate to Utah | 111 | |
| Female Suffragists Hold a Conference at Seneca Falls | 113 | |
| The California Gold Rush Begins | 115 | |
| Congress Reaches the Compromise of 1850 | 119 | |
| Harriet Beecher Stowe Publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin | 121 | |
| Congress Passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act | 122 | |
| The Republican Party Is Founded | 123 | |
| The Supreme Court Hands Down the Dred Scott Decision | 125 | |
| William Smith Strikes Oil Near Titusville, Pennsylvania | 126 | |
| John Brown Raids Harpers Ferry | 127 | |
| The Pony Express Opens for Service | 129 | |
| The Civil War Breaks Out | 131 | |
| Congress Passes the Homestead Act | 133 | |
| Abraham Lincoln Issues the Emancipation Proclamation | 135 | |
| John Wilkes Booth Assassinates Abraham Lincoln | 137 | |
| The Fourteenth Amendment Is Ratified | 140 | |
| The James Gang Robs Its First Bank | 143 | |
| Charlie Goodnight Starts a Cattle Drive | 145 | |
| America Goes to War with the Indians of the West | 147 | |
| Congress Impeaches Andrew Johnson | 149 | |
| The Golden Spike Completes the Transcontinental Railroad | 151 | |
| Jay Gould Attempts to Corner the Gold Market | 153 | |
| John D. Rockefeller Forms Standard Oil | 155 | |
| Tammany Hall's "Boss" William Tweed Is Arrested | 156 | |
| Joseph Glidden Patents Barbed Wire | 158 | |
| Alexander Graham Bell Patents the Telephone | 159 | |
| George Armstrong Custer Makes His Last Stand | 160 | |
| The Great Strike of 1877 Occurs | 162 | |
| "Billy the Kid" Joins in the Lincoln County War | 164 | |
| Edison Invents the Incandescent Electric Lamp | 165 | |
| Booker T. Washington Founds Tuskegee Institute | 166 | |
| Clara Barton Founds the American Red Cross | 168 | |
| The Brooklyn Bridge Is Completed | 169 | |
| Mark Twain Publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | 170 | |
| Geronimo Surrenders to General Nelson A. Miles | 171 | |
| Walter Camp Becomes Yale's Football Coach | 173 | |
| The Oklahoma Land Rush Begins | 174 | |
| Jacob Riis Publishes How the Other Half Lives | 175 | |
| Louis Sullivan Pioneers the Development of the Skyscraper | 176 | |
| Congress Passes the Sherman Antitrust Act | 177 | |
| The U.S. Army Massacres Indians at Wounded Knee | 179 | |
| James Naismith Invents Basketball | 181 | |
| Ellis Island Opens | 184 | |
| John Muir Founds the Sierra Club | 186 | |
| The Homestead Strike Erupts | 188 | |
| John L. Sullivan and Jim Corbett Fight a Heavyweight Championship Bout | 189 | |
| Professor Turner Announces the Closing of the Frontier | 191 | |
| William Jennings Bryan Delivers His "Cross of Gold" Speech | 193 | |
| America Declares War on Spain | 196 | |
| The Film The Great Train Robbery Is Released | 198 | |
| The Wright Brothers Fly Their First Plane | 199 | |
| The U.S. Senate Approves the Panama Canal Treaty | 201 | |
| "Big Bill" Haywood Founds the IWW | 202 | |
| Upton Sinclair Publishes The Jungle | 203 | |
| William James Publishes Pragmatism | 205 | |
| Henry Ford Introduces the Model T | 206 | |
| The NAACP Is Founded | 207 | |
| Fire Breaks Out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company | 208 | |
| Robert M. La Follette Founds the Progressive Party | 210 | |
| The Sixteenth Amendment Is Ratified | 213 | |
| W.C. Handy Writes "The St. Louis Blues" | 216 | |
| Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford Become World-famous | 218 | |
| The United States Enters World War I | 219 | |
| The Eighteenth Amendment Is Ratified | 224 | |
| U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer Launches the Red Scare | 226 | |
| The Nineteenth Amendment Is Ratified | 228 | |
| The U.S. Senate Rejects the League of Nations | 230 | |
| Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Introduces Planned Obsolescence | 232 | |
| Pittsburgh's KDKA Broadcasts Election Results | 233 | |
| George Washington Carver Invents Peanut Butter | 235 | |
| Congress Restricts Immigration | 236 | |
| Thomas Watson Founds IBM | 238 | |
| The Scopes Trial Begins in Tennessee | 239 | |
| F. Scott Fitzgerald Publishes The Great Gatsby | 240 | |
| Charles A. Lindbergh Flies the Atlantic | 242 | |
| Sacco and Vanzetti Are Executed | 243 | |
| The Great Depression Begins | 243 | |
| The Scottsboro Boys Are Convicted of Rape | 246 | |
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt Announces the New Deal | 247 | |
| Vladimir Zworykin Demonstrates the "Iconoscope" | 250 | |
| John L. Lewis Founds the CIO | 252 | |
| World War II Begins with a Sneak Attack on Pearl Harbor | 253 | |
| The U.S. Government Interns Japanese-American Citizens | 258 | |
| Congress Passes the G.I. Bill | 259 | |
| The United Nations Is Chartered | 260 | |
| America Drops Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki | 262 | |
| George C. Marshall Announces a Plan for European Recovery | 263 | |
| Jackie Robinson Gets a Contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers | 264 | |
| Levittown Is Developed | 266 | |
| Congress Passes the National Security Act | 266 | |
| The United States Launches the Berlin Airlift | 268 | |
| Joseph McCarthy Claims to Know of 205 Card-Carrying Communists | 269 | |
| Harry S Truman Begins the "Police Action" Against Korea | 271 | |
| William Faulkner Wins the Nobel Prize | 273 | |
| Jackson Pollock Establishes the "New York School" | 274 | |
| Estes Kefauver Opens Hearings on Organized Crime | 276 | |
| The Rosenbergs Are Executed for Espionage | 278 | |
| The Supreme Court Rules on Brown v. Board of Education | 280 | |
| Jonas Salk's Vaccine for Polio Receives Government Approval | 281 | |
| Rosa Parks Initiates the Montgomery Bus Boycott | 282 | |
| Congress Passes the Interstate Highway Act of 1956 | 283 | |
| Elvis Presley Appears on the Ed Sullivan Show | 285 | |
| The United States Confronts the USSR over Missiles in Cuba | 287 | |
| John Fitzgerald Kennedy Is Assassinated | 288 | |
| Betty Friedan Publishes The Feminine Mystique | 290 | |
| Congress Passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964 | 292 | |
| Lyndon Johnson Launches the "Great Society" | 294 | |
| Congress Passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution | 295 | |
| The Autobiography of Malcolm X Is Published | 298 | |
| Riots Break Out in Watts | 299 | |
| Cesar Chavez Calls for a National Boycott of Table Grapes | 301 | |
| The Supreme Court Rules on Miranda v. State of Arizona | 302 | |
| Martin Luther King Is Assassinated | 303 | |
| Robert F. Kennedy Is Assassinated | 305 | |
| The Chicago Police Riot at the Democratic Convention | 307 | |
| The United States Puts a Man on the Moon | 309 | |
| Four Students Are Killed at Kent State University | 310 | |
| The New York Times Publishes the Pentagon Papers | 311 | |
| J. Edgar Hoover Dies | 313 | |
| Nixon's "Plumbers" Are Caught Burglarizing the Watergate | 315 | |
| The Supreme Court Rules on Roe v. Wade | 317 | |
| OPEC Embargoes Oil to the West | 320 | |
| An Accident Occurs at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Facility | 321 | |
| Iran Takes Ninety Americans Hostage | 322 | |
| The Cold War Ends | 324 | |
| America Unleashes Desert Storm | 326 | |
| The Birth of the Internet Launches a New American Economy | 328 | |
| A Black Hawk Goes Down in Somalia | 330 | |
| Terror Comes to the Heartland | 333 | |
| The Juice Gets Loose | 334 | |
| The President Is Impeached | 336 | |
| The Supreme Court Elects a President | 338 | |
| War Comes to America | 341 | |
| The Enron Scandal Sends a Shock Wave Through the American Business World | 345 | |
| Afterword | 349 | |
| Select Bibliography | 351 | |
| Index | 359 |
Overview