| 1780 |
 |
Papers found on captured British
messenger Major John Andre reveal General Benedict Arnold's plan to
surrender to the British the American fort in his command at West Point,
New York. |
|
|
Over 5,000 American soldiers surrender at Charleston,
South Carolina in the worst American defeat of the Revolutionary War.
|
| 1781 |
|
Striking their own blow for
liberty, enslaved African Americans rebel in Williamsburg, Virginia.
|
|
 |
British General Cornwallis surrenders to George
Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, ending the fighting in the American
Revolution. |
| 1782 |
|
Many Loyalists--Americans who
wanted to remain under British rule and did not support the
Revolution--begin to leave the United States. Some return to Britain, but
most move to Canada. |
|
|
Harvard Medical School opens. |
| 1783 |
|
The American Revolution officially ends
when the United States and Britain sign the Treaty of Paris. |
|
|
Noah Webster publishes his "Blue-Backed Speller," which
standardizes spelling and word usage and becomes the chief textbook for
generations of American schoolchildren. |
| 1784 |
 |
A new trade route opens for American
merchants when the "Empress of China" sails from New Jersey around Cape
Horn to the Orient, opening a profitable trade with China. |
| 1785 |
|
Regular stage routes linking New York City, Boston,
Albany and Philadelphia begin. |
| 1786 |
|
Congress adopts a new coinage system
based on the Spanish dollar, replacing British pounds used during the
colonial era. |
|
|
Inventor John Fitch sails the first steamboat in America
on the Delaware River. |
| 1787 |
 |
The Northwest Ordinance provides a plan
for governing the region northwest of the Ohio River and admitting new
states to the Union. |
|
|
John Cabot and Joshua Fisher establish the first
American cotton mill at Beverly, Massachusetts. |
| 1788 |
|
The Constitution becomes effective,
creating a new system of government for America made up of three
branches--the Executive (the president), the Legislative (the Senate and
the House of Representatives) and the Judicial (the Supreme
Court). |
|
|
African Americans found the First African Baptist
Church, the first African-American church in the United
States. |
| 1789 |
|
George Washington becomes the first
president of the United States. |
|
 |
Thanksgiving is celebrated for the first time as a
national holiday. |
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