Welcome to ChronoFlo’s timeline of the 45 Presidents of the USA.
This timeline was created using ChronoFlo Timeline Maker, an online tool for making interactive timelines that you can share on the web. Information for the timeline was compiled from a variety of sources, in particular Wikipedia. Great use was made of Wikipedia’s list of US Wars.
UK-based freelance journalist Andy Jowett wrote all the presidential profiles. ChronoFlo’s Editorial team was responsible for the key events section. To the best of our knowledge, all the information in this timeline is factually correct. If you think we have made a mistake, please contact the ChronoFlo Editorial team at hello@chronoflotimeline.com.
Design: ChronoFlo Editorial
Presidential profiles: Andy Jowett
Key Events: ChronoFlo Editorial
Source: Wikipedia.
Here, you can find out about all of the USA’s 46 presidents, from George Washington to Joe Biden.
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was fought primarily between the Kingdom of Great Britain and her Thirteen Colonies in America; it resulted in the overthrow of British rule in the colonies and the establishment of the United States of America.
The Cherokee–American wars, also known as the Chickamauga Wars, were a series of back-and-forth raids, campaigns, ambushes, minor skirmishes, and several full-scale frontier battles in the Old Southwest from 1776 to 1795 between the Cherokee and American settlers on the frontier.
The United States Declaration of Independence is the pronouncement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776.
The top row displays the presidents in chronological order while the bottom row shows key events in US history.
Shays’ Rebellion was an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts in opposition to a debt crisis among the citizenry and the state government’s increased efforts to collect taxes both on individuals and their trades; the fight took place mostly in and around Springfield during 1786 and 1787.
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government.
The “Father of the Nation”, George Washington is man become legend, wrapped in myths (he never had wooden teeth!) and symbolism. But who was the first President?
The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington, ultimately under the command of American Revolutionary war veteran Major James McFarlane.
The United States Mint is a unit of the Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bullion.
John Adams was the first president to take his seat in what is known as the White House and came to office as the only president ever to be elected under the banner of the Federalist party.
The Alien and Sedition Acts were four laws passed by the Federalist-dominated 5th United States Congress and signed into law by President John Adams in 1798.
The Quasi-War was an undeclared war fought almost entirely at sea between the United States and France from 1798 to 1800, which broke out during the beginning of John Adams’s presidency.
Fries’ Rebellion was an armed tax revolt among Pennsylvania Dutch farmers between 1799 and 1800.
The primary author of the Declaration of Independence was swept to power in the Revolution of 1800, a bitter presidential election that saw Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican party conquer the divided Federalists on a platform of decentralisation, lower taxes and reduced government spending.
The First Barbary War, also known as the Tripolitanian War and the Barbary Coast War, was the first of two Barbary Wars, in which the United States and Sweden fought against the four North African states known collectively as the “Barbary States”.
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from France in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000 sq mile.
The Chesapeake–Leopard affair was a naval engagement that occurred off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, on Monday, June 22, 1807, between the British warship HMS Leopard and the American frigate USS Chesapeake.
The Father of the Constitution, James Madison came to office intending to follow the limited government ideals of his predecessor and fellow Democratic-Republican Jefferson.
Now known as the 1811 German Coast uprising, this was a revolt of black slaves in parts of the Territory of Orleans on January 8–10, 1811.
The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States and the United Kingdom, with their respective allies, from June 1812 to February 1815. Historians in Britain often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars; historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right.
The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815 between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson.
The Second Barbary War was fought between the United States and the North African Barbary Coast states of Tripoli, Tunis, and Ottoman Algeria.
The First Seminole War began with General Andrew Jackson’s excursions into West Florida and East Florida against the Seminoles after the conclusion of the War of 1812.
Although he came to power during the Era of Good Feelings, James Monroe faced numerous challenges as president, notably the first recession in US history and increasingly bitter divisions over slavery.
The Texas–Indian wars were a series of 19th-century conflicts between settlers in Texas and the Southern Plains Indians. These conflicts began when the first wave of European-American settlers moved into Spanish Texas.
The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819 was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain.
The Arikara War was an armed conflict between the United States, their allies from the Sioux tribe and Arikara Native Americans that took place in the summer of 1823, along the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota.
In the 1824 Presidential Election, none of the Democratic-Republican candidates – John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William H Crawford and General Andrew Jackson – won a majority of Electoral College votes
Aegean Sea anti-piracy operations began in 1825 when the United States government dispatched a squadron of ships to suppress Greek piracy in the Aegean Sea. Due to the Greek civil wars and the decline of the Hellenic Navy, the Aegean quickly became a haven for pirates who sometimes doubled as privateers.
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its main rival, the Republican Party.
Andrew Jackson, hero of the Battle of New Orleans, won the 1828 Presidential Election in a landslide over John Quincy Adams, partly because of the bitter divisions over the “corrupt bargain” of four years earlier.
The First Sumatran expedition, which featured the Battle of Quallah Battoo in 1832, was a punitive expedition by the United States Navy against the village of Kuala Batee, presently a subdistrict in Southwest Aceh Regency.
The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos, known as the “British Band”, crossed the Mississippi River, into the U.S
The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between various groups of Native Americans collectively known as Seminoles and the United States, part of a series of conflicts called the Seminole Wars.
The Republic of Texas was a sovereign nation in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846.
Groomed by Andrew Jackson as his successor, Martin Van Buren inherited a prosperous nation but within three months the United States was plunged into the Panic of 1837, its deepest depression to date.
The US embarked on the Second Sumatran expedition in December 1838 and concluded it in January 1839.
At 67, William Henry Harrison was the oldest man ever elected to the presidency when he took office in 1840.
The death of William Henry Harrison caused considerable uncertainty over presidential succession. The Constitution devolved the powers and duties of the president to the vice-president, but it was unclear if it also bestowed the office.
He succumbs to illness just 31 days after becoming president, making his presidential tenure the shortest in US history.
James K Polk was a dark horse when he beat Henry Clay to the presidency in 1845 on a platform that included a promise to only serve one term.
The Republic of Texas declared independence from the Republic of Mexico on March 2, 1836. It applied for annexation to the United States the same year, but was rejected by the US Secretary of State.
This was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848
Taylor was a career soldier who had never voted in a presidential election until 1848, when he won, because he did not want to vote against a potential commander-in-chief.
In January 1848, James W Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad.
Fillmore was Zachary Taylor’s vice-president and ascended to the presidency upon Taylor’s death.
Pierce won the Democratic nomination after a tortuous 48 ballots, having not won a single vote in the first, and defeated Whig nominee Winfield Scott to win the presidency.
The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP (Grand Old Party), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its main, historic rival, the Democratic Party.
Bleeding Kansas was a series of violent civil confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 which emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas.
By late 1855, there were more than 700 US Army troops stationed on the Florida peninsula. Around that time the Seminoles decided that they would strike back at the increasing pressure being put on them and attack when an opportunity presented itself.
In 1857–58, President James Buchanan sent US forces to the Utah Territory in what became known as the Utah Expedition.
Buchanan came to office as the Union began to tear itself apart over slavery in the territories, but the new president felt the issue would be resolved by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case.
Lincoln was elected president in November 1860, opposing the expansion of slavery to the western territories. The following month, South Carolina seceded from the Union. By the time he took office in March 1861, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas had followed suit.
The American Civil War took place from 1861 to 1865. It was fought between the northern United States (loyal to the Union) and the southern United States (that had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy).
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War.
Confederate spy John Wilkes Booth shoots Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. Lincoln dies the next day,
Thrust into the presidency by Lincoln’s death, Andrew Johnson was faced with the task of reconstructing a country shattered by a bitter civil war. He resolved to quickly bring former Confederate states back into the Union but did not insist on civil rights for African Americans
The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
General Grant, who led the Union army to victory in the Civil War, took a very different approach to Johnson on reconstruction, urging the ratification of the 15th Amendment prohibiting federal or state government from denying the right to vote because of race or colour, and signing a series of enforcement laws to...
The United States expedition to Korea in 1871 was the first American military action in Korea. It took place predominantly on and around Ganghwa Island.
The Red River War was a military campaign launched by the United States Army in 1874 to displace the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Native American tribes from the Southern Plains, and forcibly relocate the tribes to reservations in Indian Territory.
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations which occurred in 1876 and 1877 between the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and the United States.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also commonly referred to as Custer’s Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army.
Hayes won the presidency after one of the most controversial elections in US history. The Republican had lost the popular vote and trailed Democrat Samuel J Tilden by 184 electoral votes to 165, with 20 votes from four states unresolved.
Victorio’s War was an armed conflict between the Apache followers of Chief Victorio, the United States, and Mexico beginning in September 1879.
After Rutherford B Hayes declined to seek a second term, the Republicans turned to James A Garfield, who became the only sitting member of the House of Representatives to win the presidency.
The assassination of United States President James A Garfield began at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, DC, at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 2, 1881, less than four months after he took office.
As vice-president, Chester A Arthur ascended to the presidency following the death of James Garfield.
As mayor of Buffalo and then governor of New York, Grover Cleveland earned a reputation for honesty, pragmatism and hard work that edged him to victory in 1884 and broke Republican domination of the White House.
In an event that inspired International Workers’ Day, a peaceful labor rally in Chicago explodes into violence with multiple deaths.
The grandson of ninth President William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland in an election dominated by the issue of tariffs and went on to enact the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which introduced the highest protectionist trade rates in the nation’s history.
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 is a United States antitrust law that regulates competition among enterprises, which was passed by Congress under the presidency of Benjamin Harrison. It is named after Senator John Sherman, its principal author.
The Garza Revolution was an armed conflict fought in the Mexican state of Coahuila and the American state of Texas between 1891 and 1893.
Cleveland was the first president defeated in an election to win back the office. However, the US was soon mired in the Panic of 1893, the worst economic depression of the century, and Cleveland’s steadfast commitment to limited government meant he would not countenance federal intervention to relieve unemployment.
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897.It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the realigning election of 1896 and the presidency of William McKinley.
Widely regarded as one of the US’s worst legal rulings, Plessy v Ferguson was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality – a doctrine that came to be known as “separate but...
Republican William McKinley swept into office with a thumping victory on the back of a campaign dominated by economic issues, such as tariffs and whether the gold standard should be preserved for the money supply.
The Spanish–American War was an armed conflict between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to US intervention in the Cuban War of Independence.
The Philippine–American War was an armed conflict between the First Philippine Republic and the United States that lasted from February 4, 1899, to July 2, 1902.
As vice-president, Roosevelt took office on McKinley’s death but was determined to win the presidency under his own power; something he did with a landslide in the 1904 Presidential Election.
The assassination of United States President William McKinley took place at 4:07 p.m. on Friday, September 6, 1901, at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York.
The Wright brothers - Orville and Wilbur - were two American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world’s first successful motor-operated airplane.
His successful efforts to broker the end of the Russo-Japanese War won Theodore Roosevelt the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency.
Roosevelt considered Taft his natural successor and threw the Republican party machine behind him for the nomination. Taft, however, struggled to emerge from the shadow of the showman Rough Rider (one wag opined that T.A.F.T stood for Taking Advice From Theodore).
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in US history.
Wilson became only the second Democrat since 1860 to take the White House when he won the four-candidate 1912 election.
World War I - also known as the First World War or the Great War - was a global war that lasted from 1914 to 1918.
The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, nearly three years after World War I started. A ceasefire and Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918.
The wartime president is awarded the prestigious prize for his work in establishing the League of Nations, the forerunner to the United Nations.
Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933.
The Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the United States Constitution prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex.
Warren G Harding campaigned promising a “return to normalcy” from the Progressive politics of Wilson and an era of war, internationalism and government intervention.
Thrust into office by the death of Harding, Calvin Coolidge dealt swiftly with the scandals of his predecessor, dismissing most of the officials implicated in wrongdoing.
The Tri-State Tornado was a deadly and destructive tornado that struck parts of three states in the Central United States on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 18, 1925.
Hoover had been in the White House for less than eight months when the 1929 Wall Street Crash triggered the Great Depression. Hoover approved higher tariffs and reduced international trade, but the US only sank deeper into the mire.
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash or Black Tuesday, was a major stock market crash that occurred in 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed.
FDR remains the only president to have served more than two terms, winning four straight elections.
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939.
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world’s countries—including all the great powers - eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, preemptive military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States (a neutral country at the time) against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 08:00, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.
On 11 December 1941, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States declaration of war against the Japanese Empire, Nazi Germany declared war against the United States, in response to what was claimed to be a series of provocations by the United States government when the US was still...
Truman had been vice-president for just 82 days when FDR’s death put him in the Oval Office.
The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, with the consent of the United Kingdom, as required by the Quebec Agreement.
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence.
The Korean War was a war between North Korea (with the support of China and the Soviet Union) and South Korea (with the support of the United Nations, principally from the United States). The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea.
The former supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe during WWII and supreme commander of NATO, Eisenhower ran for president opposing isolationism and pledging active containment of communism.
The Vietnam War was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.
In early December 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks rejected bus driver James Blake’s order to relinquish her seat in the “colored section” to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled.
Hawaii is a state of the United States of America located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the only US state located outside North America and the only island state.
After a campaign that included landmark televised debates with Richard Nixon, Kennedy became the youngest man ever elected president. At his inauguration, he declared: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day (October 16–28, 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union initiated by the American discovery of Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.
Civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King Jr delivers his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963.
At 12:30pm Central Standard Time in Dallas, Texas, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza.
Sworn in aboard Air Force One just two hours after the death of Kennedy, with Jacqueline Kennedy looking on, Johnson inherited a country riven by shock and grief.
The Mỹ Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass murder of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians by U.S. troops in Sơn Tịnh District, South Vietnam, on 16 March 1968.
Martin Luther King Jr (born Michael King Jr was an American Christian minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.
After defeat in 1960, Richard Nixon ran in 1968 appealing to the “great silent majority” of conservative middle America who were not part of the counterculture or anti-war protests.
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC.
In early 1973, all US combat activities were suspended and the Paris Peace Accords was signed on 27 January 1973, officially ending direct US involvement in the Vietnam War.
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of US President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon’s resignation.
Gerald Ford came to office following Richard Nixon’s resignation at a time when trust in political leaders was arguably at an all-time low following Vietnam and Watergate.
Jimmy Carter’s relatively low public profile prior to his presidential bid was considered a benefit in a country wary, and weary, of politicians.
Amid a national crisis of confidence, Ronald Reagan spoke of the US as a “shining city upon a hill” and offered a bullish, unapologetically nationalist vision for the future based on cutting taxes, bolstering defence and confronting communism.
On March 30, 1981, United States President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr in Washington, DC as he was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Hinckley believed the attack would impress actress Jodie Foster, whom he had become obsessed with.
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was a fatal incident in the United States space program that occurred on January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard.
As an ex-CIA director and Reagan’s vice-president, Bush was considered a safe pair of hands by Republicans.
The Gulf War was a conflict waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait arising from oil pricing and production disputes.
Centrist “third way” politics and the mantra “it’s the economy, stupid” won Bill Clinton the three-candidate 1992 election.
George W Bush lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore in the controversial 2000 election and squeaked into office after much legal wrangling.
The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein.
Operation Red Dawn was an American military operation conducted on 13 December 2003 in the town of ad-Dawr, Iraq, near Tikrit, that led to the capture of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The operation was named after the 1984 film Red Dawn.
The execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein took place on Saturday, 30 December 2006.
Barack Obama became the first African-American president with a decisive victory built on grassroots momentum and appealing to younger voters.
In a controversial decision, the Norwegian-based Nobel Prize committee awarded the 2009 prize to the US president, even though he had only been in office for less than a year.
Billionaire businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump was a rank outsider for the Republican nomination but confounded the pollsters to win the presidency with a combination of populism, forthright nationalism and unshakeable self-belief.
After winning a fractious presidential campaign against incumbent Donald Trump, Democrat Joe Biden was inaugurated the 46th US president on 20th January 2021.
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