Timeline: Michael Zimmerman: Art's List

1756 - 1825 (69 years)

	Date	Event(s)
1	1760	17 1760: Benjamin Franklin invents the first bifocal lenses for eye glasses. What would I do with out them?
2	1763	1763: The Proclamation of 1763 forbids the American colonists to settle the land beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Somehow our ancestors did not know of this law.
3	1769	1769: Daniel Boone--ignoring the Proclamation of 1763 prohibiting settlers from crossing over the Appalachian mountains--leads an expedition to the Kentucky region and explores Cumberland Gap.
4	1773	1773: America becomes officially free from England.
5	1775	18 Apr 1775: One if by land, two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex, village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Paul Revere's Ride") After looking for the signal (one lantern if the regulars - the term used for invading British soldiers - were coming by land, or two if they were coming by sea) in the Christ Church steeple, Paul Revere and other Americans rode through the dark of the night on the eve of April 19,1775, to warn the country folk of the danger to come.
6	1776	4 Jul 1776: The Declaration of Independence was signed. Joseph Hewes of North Caroliona, is an ancestor on Art's List, signed the Declaration of Independence. To read the Declaration of Independence Click here. Declaration of Independence Declaration of Independence
7	1783	17 1783: George Washington leads Americans to final victory over Britain in Yorktown.
8	1787	1787: The Northwest Ordinance provides a plan for governing the region northwest of the Ohio River and admitting new states to the Union.
9	1788	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).
10	1789	1789: George Washington becomes the first president of the United States. Thanksgiving is celebrated for the first time as a national holiday.
11	1790	1790: Philadelphia becomes the nation's capitol. The United States conducts its first census and finds that 3,929,214 people live in the young nation.
12	1791	1791: The Bill of Rights becomes part of the United States Constitution, guaranteeing Americans the right of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. Vermont becomes the first new state to join the original thirteen United States.
13	1797	17 1797: John Chapman, known as "Johnny Appleseed," begins planting apple seeds along the Ohio Valley.
14	1799	14 Dec 1799: Less than three years after his retirement from the Presidency, George Washington dies at the age of 67 at his Mount Vernon, Virginia plantation. He is mourned by millions of Americans.
15	1800	1800: The new city of Washington, D.C. becomes the United States capital.
16	1804	1804: Mason County was formed in 1804 from Kanawha County and named for George Mason (1725-1792) of Fairfax County Virginia. George Mason believed in rights for the common man and freedom for all people. His paper "The Declaration of Rights" was widely accepted in 1776.
17	1807	1807: Robert Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont, makes its first run from New York City to Albany in 32 hours, traveling at the top speed of 5 mph.
18	1812	12 Jun 1812: The United States goes to war with Great Britain after the British interfere with American trade and force American sailors to serve in the British navy.
19	1814	1814: Francis Scott Key writes the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" during an unsuccessful attack on Fort McHenry by the British. The War of 1812 is ended by the Treaty of Ghent.
20	1815	8 Jan 1815: On January 8, 1815, American forces, under General Jackson, decisively defeat the British forces trying to capture New Orleans. The battle, which takes place after the Treaty of Ghent has been signed, is the most decisive American victory of the war.
21	1817	1817: The construction of the Erie Canal through New York State begins. T One of the longest of the great American canals built in the 19th Century. The Erie Canal extends from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, at Buffalo. The idea was to get goods back and forth from the Great Lakes to New York City (via the Hudson River, which connected with the Erie Canal). The Canal was built between 1817 and 1825 and had paid for itself within 10 years. The building of the Canal also helped settle Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other states on the Great Lakes.
22	1825	18 1825: The 350 mile long Erie Canal, the most important passenger and freight route from the East to the Midwest, is completed. Opened in 1825, the Erie Canal was the engineering marvel of the 19th Century. When the planning for what many derided as “Clinton's Folly” began, there was not a single school of engineering in the United States. With the exception of a few places where black powder was used to blast through rock formations, all 363 miles were built by the muscle power of men and horses.