1541 |
Hernando de Soto’s band traveled through
the area that was to become Tennessee. |
1715 |
The
last Shawnee had been driven out by Chickasaw and
Cherokee attacks. |
1770s |
Four
different communities had been established in
northeastern Tennessee – on the Watauga River, the North
Holston, the Nolichucky, and in Carter’s Valley. |
1779/80 |
During the winter and
spring three hundred pioneers – black and white – made
the difficult trek to the French Lick, as the future
site of Nashville was then known. |
1780 |
The
battle at Kings Mountain was a key American victory
during the Revolutionary War. The Tennessee militia
played an important part in this victory. |
1784 |
The State of Franklin
was formed in part of East Tennessee. This short-lived
State of Franklin passed out of existence in 1788. |
1789 |
North
Carolina ceded its western land, the Tennessee county,
to the Federal Government. Congress now designated the
area as the Territory of the United States, South of the
River Ohio. |
1796 |
On June 1, 1796,
Congress approved the admission of Tennessee as the
sixteenth state of the Union. |
1815 |
On
January 8th, Andrew Jackson and his troops from
Tennessee defeated the British army at the Battle of New
Orleans. |
1818 |
The Chickasaw Treaty
of 1818 extended Tennessee's western boundary to the
Mississippi River, and opened up a rich, new
agricultural area for settlement. |
1826 |
The
capitol moved to its permanent site in Nashville. |
1828 |
Andrew Jackson was
elected president of the United States by landslide
majorities in 1828 and 1832 |
1838 |
The
U.S. Army was dispatched to evict the Cherokee and send
them on a woeful trek to Indian Territory - the "Trail
of Tears. |
1844 |
James K Polk of Maury
County was elected president. |
1861 |
Having
ratified by popular vote its connection to the fledgling
Confederacy, Tennessee became the last state to withdraw
from the Union. |
1861/65 |
187,000 Confederate
and 51,000 Federal soldiers mustered in from Tennessee
as the Civil War raged throughout the south. |
1865 |
Andrew
Johnson became president following Lincoln's
assassination in April. |
1866 |
Tennessee was
readmitted to the Union after the state became the third
state of ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. |
1870 |
Delegates from across the state met in
1870 to rewrite the Constitution. |
1880
|
Englishman Thomas
Hughes established the Rugby colony. |
1894 |
Another experimental colony was Ruskin,
founded in 1894 by the famous socialist publicist Julius
Wayland. |
1897 |
The Tennessee
Centennial Exposition was held in Nashville in honor of
the state's one hundredth birthday. |
1898 |
Four
regiments of Tennesseans were mustered into the
volunteer United States Army during the Spanish-American
War. |