Below is an ever-growing timeline of technological and social innovation, mostly in the US. Ah yes, history.
So, who cares about all of this history nonsense? I do. Because this is all quite interesting. Interesting indeed. We tend to learn our history in silos, which diminishes the overall effect of context. When all of these events are put together–in a historical parfait, if you will–they form a much better explanation for human individual and group motivation.
This timeline is beta. I’m planning on developing something much more illustrative when the format materializes.
| 01-20-2009 | Presidential inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama, the first with social media coverage (blogs, tweets, facebook, other social networks)
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| 12-30-2006 | The execution of Saddam Hussein
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| 2004 | Medical scientists created the first protein patch, enabling human tissue repair.
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| 09-11-2001 | Series of coordinated suicide attacks executed by al-Qaeda upon the United States
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| 01-20-2001 | Presidential inauguration of George W. Bush
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| 01-20-1993 | Presidential inauguration of William Jefferson Clinton, the first with live broadcast on the Internet
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| 02-28-1991 | Persian Gulf War ended
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| 08-02-1990 | Persian Gulf War began
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| 06-13-1990 | The official dismantling of the Berlin Wall
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| 1989 | The World Wide Web was established
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| 01-20-1989 | Presidential inauguration of George H.W. Bush
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| 01-20-1981 | Presidential inauguration of Ronald Reagan, the first using closed-captioning of television broadcast for hearing impaired
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| 01-20-1977 | Presidential inauguration of Jimmy Carter
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| 04-30-1975 | The end of the US involvement in the Vietnam War.
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| 08-09-1974 | Presidential inauguration of Gerald R. Ford |
| 06-18-1972 | Break-ins at the DNC office in the Watergate Complex. This led to President Nixon’s resignation in August 9, 1974.
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| 1971 | Starbucks opened its first coffee shop
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| 1970 | The first James Bond-like picture call was made
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| 01-20-1969 | Presidential inauguration of Richard M. Nixon
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| 11-22-1963 | Presidential inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson
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| 07-02-1962 | Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart Discount City
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| 1962 | The first pull tab on aluminum cans was invented in Pittsburgh, allowing for much easier consumption of beer. hoorah!
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| 01-20-1961 | Presidential inauguration of John F. Kennedy
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| 1959 | New US states: Alaska, Hawaii
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| 1960 | Slinky inventor Richard James, inspired by a mid-life crisis, packed up and left his family for Bolivia. His wife Betty James took the reigns and developed several other Slinky products, rocketing into the toy hall of fame in 2001.
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| 1959 | The beginning of the US involvement in the Vietnam War.
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| 04-12-1955 | Jonas Salk’s Polio vaccine started saving lives
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| 1954 | WQED in Pittsburgh became the first public broadcasting station
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| 01-20-1953 | Presidential inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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| 01-20-1949 | Harry Truman’s second inauguration was the first to be broadcast on television
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| 1947 | My father was born
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| 06-06-1946 | The NBA was formed
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| 09-02-1945 | World War II ended in Asia: Japan surrenders
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| 05-08-1945 | World War II ended in Europe: Germany surrenders
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| 04-12-1945 | Presidential inauguration of Harry S. Truman
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| 1943 | Naval engineer Richard James invented the Slinky.
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| 1941 | Frozen food became popular in the US
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| 09-01-1939 | World War II started
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| 1936 | The first fully-programmable computer was created
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| 1933 | The turn-around point to recovery from the Great Depression
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| 03-04-1933 | Presidential inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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| 10-29-1929 | Black Tuesday and the beginning of the Great Depression
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| 03-04-1923 | Presidential inauguration of Herbert Hoover
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| 1933 | The Pittsburgh Steelers team was founded
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| 1927 | The television was invented
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| 08-03-1923 | Presidential inauguration of Calvin Coolidge, the first broadcast by national radio
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| 03-04-1921 | Presidential inauguration of Warren G. Harding
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| 1920 | The NFL was formed
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| 08-18-1920 | President Woodrow Wilson passed the 19th Amendment, making women’s suffrage legal in the whole US, 51 years after Wyoming
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| 1920 | The “talking picture” replaced the silent film
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| 1919 | The Flu of 1918 dissipated, taking 25 million lives in 25 weeks all over the world. This was 2.5% of the world’s population. AIDS has killed 25 million in 25 years.
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| 09-29-1918 | World War I ended
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| 1917 | The NHL was formed
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| 1916 | A British country soldier stationed in France came down with the strain of the Flu that blossomed into the Spanish Influenza, or the Flu of 1918. People became symptomatic and died within 3 days, mostly due to fluid in their lungs.
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| 06-28-1914 | World War I started
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| 1914 | The Panama Canal was finished
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| 03-04-1913 | Presidential inauguration of Woodrow Wilson
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| 1912 | New US states: New Mexico, Arizona
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| 1911 | My paternal grandfather was born
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| 1910 | The gas-powered tractor is introduced to farming
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| 1909 | Forbes Field, in Pittsburgh, was the first sports stadium made of steel and concrete to be built.
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| 03-04-1909 | Presidential inauguration of William Howard Taft
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| 1908 | Ford’s Model T automobile was mass-produced and available for middle-class households
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| 1907 | Hershey invented the Hershey Kiss
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| 11-16-1907 | New US states: Oklahoma
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| 04-08-1906 | Great earthquake & fire in San Francisco
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| 1903 | The Wright Brothers’ first successful airplane flight
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| 1903 | The Pittsburgh Pirates hosted the first ever World Series game
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| 1901 | The assembly line was invented
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| 09-14-1901 | Presidential inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt
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| 03-04-1897 | Presidential inauguration of William McKinley, the first recorded by motion picture camera
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| 01-04-1896 | New US states: Utah
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| 1893 | Sears started their mail-order catalog business
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| 03-10-1891 | Nikola Tesla produced the first reliable radio waves
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| 1890 | New US states: Idaho, Wyoming
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| 11-1889 | New US states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington
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| 1889 | The new automobile became more accessible to only the wealthy
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| 1889 | Dr. John Kellogg and his brother, W.K. created a breakfast cereal very similar to Dr. James Jackson’s Granula, called it “Granola,” and sold it at their health spa. This launched the success of the Kellog’s Corn Flakes of today. read more
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| 03-04-1889 | Presidential inauguration of Benjamin Harrison
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| 1888 | The first Silent Film was created
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| 05-19-1885 | Robert E. Odlum, a swimming teacher, jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge in a costume bearing his initials. He survived the pre-announced jump, but died shortly thereafter from internal injuries.
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| 03-04-1885 | Presidential inauguration of Grover Cleveland
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| 05-24-1883 | The Brooklyn Bridge opened for use
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| 09-20-1881 | Presidential inauguration of Chester Arthur
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| 1881 | The first labor unions were established
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| 03-04-1881 | Presidential inauguration of James A. Garfield
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| 1880 | The Panama Canal was started
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| 1879 | The light bulb was invented
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| 1877 | The invention of rolled, perforated toilet paper
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| 03-05-1877 | Presidential inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes
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| 08-01-1876 | New US states: Colorado
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| 03-10-1876 | The telephone was invented
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| 02-03-1870 | The Fifteenth Amendment was passed, ensuring citizens of all races the right to vote
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| 01-03-1870 | Construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge
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| 1869 | Wyoming was the first state to legalize women’s suffrage
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| 1869 | Major League Baseball was established
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| 03-04-1869 | Presidential inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant
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| 03-01-1867 | New US states: Nebraska
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| 12-06-1865 | Slavery was abolished in the US
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| 04-15-1865 | Presidential inauguration of Andrew Johnson
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| 04-09-1865 | The American Civil War ended
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| 10-31-1864 | New US states: Nevada
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| 1863 | Christian fundamentalist and vegetarian Dr. James Jackson invented Granula, the first ready-to-eat breakfast cereal in the US
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| 06-20-1863 | New US states: West Virginia
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| 03-04-1861 | Presidential inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
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| 04-12-1861 | The American Civil War began
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| 01-29-1861 | New US states: Kansas
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| 1859 | In order to quell female hysteria in the Victorian Era, physicians manually stimulated women’s genitalia to orgasm. Since this was a tedious task, in 1870, the vibrator was invented as a time-saver.
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| 02-14-1859 | New US states: Oregon
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| 1858 | City of Denver was established
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| 05-11-1858 | New US states: Minnesota
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| 03-04-1857 | Presidential inauguration of James Buchanan, the first with photographs
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| 03-04-1853 | Presidential inauguration of Franklin Pierce
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| 09-09-1850 | New US states: California
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| 07-10-1850 | Presidential inauguration of Millard Fillmore
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| 1849 | Rufus Porter, founder of Scientific American, invented a wagon with propeller-driven balloons powered by steam engines to take gold rushers to California
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| 03-05-1849 | Presidential inauguration of Zachary Taylor
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| 05-29-1848 | New US states: Wisconsin
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| 12-28-1846 | New US states: Iowa
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| 05-19-1846 | The Donner Party headed west to California
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| 1846 | John Roebling invented the wire cable, enabling the design and construction of modern suspension bridges
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| 1845 | New US states: Florida, Texas
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| 03-04-1845 | Presidential inauguration of James Knox Polk
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| 04-06-1841 | Presidential inauguration of John Tyler
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| 03-04-1841 | Presidential inauguration of William Henry Harrison, at which, he gave an unusually long speech in the unusually cold weather and contracted pneumonia.
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| 1840 | The first Business college in the US was started in Pittsburgh
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| 03-04-1837 | Presidential inauguration of Martin Van Buren
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| 01-26-1837 | New US states: Michigan
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| 06-15-1836 | New US states: Arkansas
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| 03-06-1836 | Battle of the Alamo for Texas’ independence from Mexico to be its own sovereign state (like the US)
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| 1831 | Cyrus McCormick invented the horse-pulled reaper, effectively making bread cheap and starting a wave of farming innovation
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| 03-04-1829 | Presidential inauguration of Andrew Jackson
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| 03-04-1825 | Presidential inauguration of John Quincy Adams
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| 08-24-1821 | Mexico established its independence (and abolished slavery)
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| 08-10-1821 | New US states: Missouri
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| 03-15-1820 | New US states: Maine
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| 12-14-1819 | New US states: Alabama
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| 1819 | The beginning of the US canned food industry
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| 12-03-1818 | New US states: Illinois
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| 12-10-1817 | New US states: Mississippi
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| 03-04-1817 | Presidential inauguration of James Monroe
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| 12-11-1816 | New US states: Indiana
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| 1816 | The first energy utility company was founded in the US
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| 04-30-1812 | New US states: Louisiana
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| 03-04-1809 | Presidential inauguration of James Madison
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| 12-07-1805 | The Lewis and Clark Expedition reach the Pacific Ocean
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| 08-12-1805 | The Lewis and Clark Expedition crosses the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass
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| 08-31-1803 | The Lewis and Clark Expedition left Pittsburgh
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| 04-30-1803 | Thomas Jefferson made the 828,800 square-mile Louisiana Purchase from France for $15,000,000
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| 02-19-1803 | New US states: Ohio
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| 03-04-1801 | Presidential inauguration of Thomas Jefferson
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| 1800 | Alessandro Volta invented the first electric battery
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| 03-04-1797 | Presidential inauguration of John Adams
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| 06-01-1796 | New US states: Tennessee
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| 1793 | Eli Whitney invented the Cotton Gin
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| 06-01-1792 | New US states: Kentucky
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| 03-04-1791 | New US states: Vermont
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| 05-29-1790 | New US states: Rhode Island
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| 1789 | New US states: North Carolina
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| 04-30-1789 | George Washington was sworn in as the first US president
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| 1788 | New US states: Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Caroliina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York
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| 1787 | New US states: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey
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| 07-04-1776 | US declared independence from Britain
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| 12-16-1773 | The Boston Tea Party
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| 1771 | An early automobile model was invented
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| 1758 | City of Pittsburgh was established
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| 1620 | The Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock
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| 1620 | The first submarine was built
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| 1596 | The first model of a flush toilet was made
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| 08-14-1515 | The Iron Maiden was first used to execute a coin forger.
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| 1492 | Christopher Columbus landed in America
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| 1440 | The printing press was invented
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