Here are some key events in the history of the United States ¹ ²:

- *American colonies*: The colonies grew both geographically along the Atlantic coast and numerically to 13 from the time of their founding to the American Revolution (1775–81).

- *American Revolution*: The first of the European colonies to separate successfully from its motherland, the country was the first nation to be established on the premise that sovereignty rests with its citizens and not with the government.

- *Civil War*: Prelude to war, 1850–60. Secession and the politics of the Civil War, 1860–65. Reconstruction and the New South, 1865–1900.

- *Industrialization*: The country's wealth is partly a reflection of its rich natural resources and its enormous agricultural output, but it owes more to the country's highly developed industry.

- *American imperialism*: The United States from 1920 to 1945. The postwar Republican administrations. The New Deal. The United States since 1945. The peak Cold War years, 1945–60. The Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

- *21st century*: The Barack Obama administration. The Donald Trump administration. The Joe Biden administration. Economic recovery, the American Rescue Plan Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the failure of Build Back Better.