2.  October 1492 – Columbus discovers America  Jamestown, Virginia – the first English settlement  1620 – Pilgrim Fathers establish Plymouth  Pennsylvania settled by W. Penn (Quakers)  Britain at war with France. Treaty of Paris (1763) – Britain is a supreme power in America

3.  1773 – the Boston Tea Party. The first conflict with Britain. Motto: „No taxation without representation!“  Declaration of Independence (Thomas Jefferson) 4 July 1776  US Constitution 1787 drafted, 1788 accepted, 1789 put into effect  George Washington elected US President (1789)  Bill of Rights ratified in 1791

4.  1800 – Washington DC becomes the capital  1849 – Gold Rush (J.London writes books about it)  1861-1865 – Civil War resulting in abolishment of slavery (1863 Emancipation Proclamation)  Gen. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant 1865  President A. Lincoln assassinated by J.W. Booth in the Ford Theatre

5.  G. Bell – telephone (1876)  T.A. Edison – electric light (1879)  H. Ford – car mass production (1896)  Wright brothers – first flight (1905)

6.  USA enters the war in 1917 after the Zimmermann Telegramme captured by British Intelligence  W. Wilson, US President, helps TGM to form Czechoslovakia in 1918  USA is one of the winners and gets a war reparations

7.  1929 – the stock market collaps, world economy ruined  1932 – the New Deal : a political and social programme by Franklin D. Roosevelt  National parks founded, highways constructed

8.  Dec 7, 1941 – Pearl Harbor attacked  Dec 8, 1941 – USA declares war at Japan  D-Day = invasion in Normandy  VE-Day = victory in Europe (8 May 1945)  Atomic bomb thrown at Hiroshima (6 Aug), Nagasaki (9 Aug)  VJ-Day = victory in Japan (2 Sept 1945)

9.  1950s – 1980s political conflict of Soviet Union and Western Allies  1963 – JFK assassinated in Dallas, TX  1960s – Civil Rights Movement (anti- segregation)  Vietnam War (1973 US troops withdrawn)  Watergate Affair – a political scandal, R. Nixon resigns

10.  September 11, 2001 – World Trade Centre destroyed by terrorists  2003 – USA declares war at Iraq. Dictator Saddam Hussein captured and executed.  Controversial policy of G. W. Bush