Some Major Dates of American History.

1000 Leif Ericson sails to the east coast of North America.

1492 October 12. Christopher Columbus lands in the Bahamas.

1607 Colonists establish first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.

1620 Mayflower ship with Pilgrims on board sails to America.

1621 The first Thanksgiving Day is celebrated.

1636 October 28. America’s first college, Harvard, is founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1774 September 5. First Continental Congress opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1775 April 19. First shots of the American War of Independence are fired at Lexington, Massachusetts.

1776 July 4. The 13 colonies sign the Declaration of Independence.

1787 May 25. Constitutional Convention meets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to revise Articles of Confederation. New Constitution is adopted by delegates on September 17.

1791 First 10 Amendments, the Bill of Rights, are added to the US Constitution.

1812 War of 1812 against Britain begins. The United States wins series of naval victories, but fails in attempts to invade Canada. British burn Capitol and White House in August 1814.

1860 Abraham Lincoln is elected 16^th president.

December 20. South Carolina, followed by six other southern states, secedes from Union in reaction to election of Lincoln, who opposes extension of slavery into western territories. These states organize the Confederate States of America.

1861 April 12. First guns are fired in Civil War at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, over question of southern states’ right to secede from the Union.

1863 January 1. President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation granting freedom to slaves in southern states.

1865 April 9. The last Confederate forces are surrendered in a farmhouse near Appomattox. The Civil War is over.

1867 Territory of Alaska is purchased from Russia.

Text 7. Presidents of the United States.

№	The Name of the President	The Years of Ruling	What He Was Famous For
1	George Washington	1789-1797	Americans call him “The Father of the Nation” Before the election he served in the army as a general.
2	John Adams	1797-1801	The first president to live in White House
3	Thomas Jefferson	1801-1809	The author of the Declaration of Independence.
4	James Madison	1809-1817	Elected for two terms.
5	James Monroe	1817-1825
6	John Quincy Adams	1825-1829
7	Andrew Jackson	1829-1837	Elected for two terms.
8	Martin Van Buren	1837-1841
9	William Henry Harrison	March 4, 1841- April 4, 1841	The shortest Presidential term
10	John Tyler	1841-1845
11	James Knox Polk	1845-1849
12	Zachary Taylor	1849-1850
13	Millard Fillmore	1850-1853
14	Franklin Pierce	1853-1857
15	James Buchanan	1857-1861	The only single president. The role of White House hostess was performed by his niece.
16	Abraham Lincoln	1861-1865	Won the Civil War of Independence. Was shot in April, 1865
17	Andrew Johnson	1865-1869	Was impeached but excused.
18	Ulysses Simpson Grant	1869-1877	Elected for two terms. Before the election he served in the army as a general.
19	Rutherford Birchard Hayes	1877-1881
20	James Abram Garfield	March 4, 1881- September19, 1881	Was shot in September, 1881.
21	Chester Alan Arthur	1881-1885
22	(Stephen) Grover Cleveland	1885-1889
23	Benjamin Harrison	1889-1893
24	(Stephen) Grover Cleveland	1893-1897
25	William McKinley	1897-1901	Was killed in Buffalo, New York.
26	Theodore Roosevelt	1901-1909	Elected for two terms. Before the election he served in the army as a colonel.
27	William Howard Taft	1909-1913
28	(Thomas) Woodrow Wilson	1913-1921	Elected for two terms.
29	Warren Gamaliel Harding	1921-1923
30	Calvin Goolidge	1923-1929
31	Herbert Clark Hoover	1929-1933
32	Franklin Delano Roosevelt	1933-1945	Elected for three terms.
33	Harry S. Truman	1945-1953	Elected for two terms.
34	Dwight David Eisenhower	1953-1961	Elected for two terms. Before the election he served in the army as a general.
35	John Fitzgerald Kennedy	1961-1963	The youngest elected president. Was killed in Texas.
36	Lyndon Baines Johnson	1963-1969	Elected for two terms.
37	Richard Milhous Nixon	1969-1974	Was impeached but excused.
38	Gerald Rudolf Ford	1974-1977
39	James Earl Carter	1977-1981
40	Ronald Wilson Reagan	1981-1989	Elected for two terms.
41	George Herbert Walker Bush (Senior)	1989-1993
42	Bill (William Jefferson) Klinton	1993-2001	Elected for two terms.
43	George Bush (Junior)	2001-

State Virginia is called “The Old Dominion” or “The President State” because eight presidents were born here. In the USA there is a Constitutional defense from having too much presidential power which is called “impeachment”: the House of Representatives impeaches a president and the Senate investigates it and takes a conclusion. In 1865 the 17^th president Andrew Johnson was impeached for breaking the Constitution and exceeding his powers. But he was excused by the Senate. In 1972 the 37^th president Richard M. Nixon was impeached for the “Watergate Case” and he retired from the presidential post.