Dates assigned to each conflict are those that are generally regarded as the formal start and finish of each war. It should be noted that the United States did not enter the two world wars of the twentieth century until several years after those wars began. In order to provide fuller perspectives, this time line includes events that preceded U.S. involvement in several conflicts and thus includes some battles and other developments in which the United States was not directly involved.
Date
Event
Revolutionary War, 1775–1783
Mar. 5, 1770
Boston Massacre.
Dec. 16, 1773
Boston Tea Party.
Apr. 19, 1775
Battles of Lexington and Concord begin Revolutionary War.
May 10–11, 1775
Battle of Fort Ticonderoga.
June 17, 1775
Battle of Bunker Hill.
Dec. 31, 1775
Battle of Quebec.
Aug. 27–30, 1776
Battle of Long Island.
Sept. 6–7, 1776
Submarine experiments.
Oct. 28, 1776
Battle of White Plains.
Dec. 26, 1776
Battle of Trenton.
Jan. 3, 1777
Battle of Princeton.
Aug. 6, 1777
Battle of Oriskany Creek.
Sept. 11, 1777
Battle of Brandywine.
Oct. 4, 1777
Battle of Germantown.
Oct. 8–17, 1777
Battle of Saratoga.
Feb. 6, 1778
Franco-American Treaties are signed.
June 28, 1778
Battle of Monmouth.
June 21, 1779-Feb. 7, 1783
Siege of Gibraltar.
Sept. 23-Oct. 18, 1779
Siege of Savannah.
Apr. 1-May 12, 1780
Siege of Charleston.
Aug. 16, 1780
Battle of Camden.
Oct. 7, 1780
Battle of King’s Mountain.
Jan. 17, 1781
Battle of Cowpens.
Sept.-Oct., 1781
Battle of Yorktown and Virginia Capes.
Oct. 19, 1781
British surrender at Yorktown.
Sept. 3, 1783
Treaty of Paris formally ends the war.
War of 1812, 1812–1814
June 18, 1812
United States declares war on Great Britain.
Sept. 10, 1813
Battle of Lake Erie.
Oct. 5, 1813
Battle of Thames.
Sept. 11, 1814
Battle of Lake Champlain.
Sept. 12–14, 1814
Battle of Baltimore.
Dec. 24, 1814
United States and Britain sign Treaty of Ghent.
Jan. 8, 1815
Battle of New Orleans.
Feb. 17, 1815
Full terms of the Treaty of Ghent go into effect.
Texas Revolution, 1835–1836, and Mexican War, 1846–1848
June 30, 1835
Texans seize Anahuac Garrison and Texas Revolution begins.
Feb. 23-Mar. 6, 1836
Battle of the Alamo.
Apr. 21, 1836
Battle of San Jacinto.
Oct. 22, 1836
Texans declare independence and elect Sam Houston president.
May 6, 1846
Mexican War begins.
Sept. 21–24, 1846
Battle of Monterrey.
Feb. 22–23, 1847
Battle of Buena Vista.
Apr. 17–18, 1847
Battle of Cerro Gordo.
Sept. 12–13, 1847
Siege of Chapultepec.
Feb. 2, 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the war.
Civil War, 1861–1865
Oct. 16–18, 1859
John Brown leads raid on Harpers Ferry.
Apr. 12–14, 1861
Confederate assault on Fort Sumter opens the Civil War.
July 21, 1861
First Battle of Bull Run.
Feb. 11–16, 1862
Battle of Fort Donelson.
Mar. 9, 1862
Battle of Monitor vs. Virginia (Merrimack).
Apr. 6–7, 1862
Battle of Shiloh.
June 25-July 1, 1862
Seven Days’ Battles.
Aug. 29–30, 1862
Second Battle of Bull Run.
Sept. 13–15, 1862
Battle of Harpers Ferry.
Sept. 17, 1862
Battle of Antietam.
Oct. 3–4, 1862
Battle of Corinth.
Dec. 13, 1862
Battle of Fredericksburg.
May 1–4, 1863
Battle of Chancellorsville.
May 18-July 4, 1863
Siege of Vicksburg.
July 1–3, 1863
Battle of Gettysburg.
July 13–15, 1863
Draft riots in New York City.
Sept. 19–20, 1863
Battle of Chickamauga.
Nov. 23–25, 1863
Battle of Chattanooga.
May 5–7, 1864
Battle of the Wilderness.
May 8–20, 1864
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.
June 3–12, 1864
Battle of Cold Harbor.
June 15, 1864-Apr. 3, 1865
Siege of Petersburg.
July 20-Sept. 2, 1864
Battle of Atlanta.
Nov. 15, 1864-Apr. 18, 1865
Sherman’s March to the Sea.
Dec. 9–21, 1864
Battle of Savannah.
Dec. 15–16, 1864
Battle of Nashville.
Apr. 9, 1865
Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox.
Spanish-American War, 1898
Feb. 24, 1895-Apr. 13, 1898
Cuban war of independence.
Apr. 24, 1898
Spain declares war on the United States.
May 1, 1898
Battle of Manila Bay.
July 1, 1898
Battle of San Juan/El Caney.
Dec. 10. 1898
Treaty of Paris formally ends the war.
Feb. 4, 1899
Philippine insurrection begins.
World War I, 1914–1918
June 28, 1914
Serbian nationalist assassinates Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand at Sarajevo.
Aug. 1, 3 1914
Germany declares war on Russia and France
Aug. 4, 1914
Great Britain’s declaration of war on Germany opens World War I.
Aug. 14–25, 1914
Battle of the Frontiers.
Aug. 26–31, 1914
Battle of Tannenberg.
Sept. 5–9, 1914
Battle of Marne.
Sept. 9–14, 1914
Battle of Masurian Lakes.
Oct. 30-Nov. 24, 1914
First Battle of Ypres.
Dec. 8, 1914
Battle of the Falkland Islands.
Feb. 19, 1915-Jan. 9, 1916
Gallipoli Campaign.
Apr. 22-May 25, 1915
Second Battle of Ypres.
May 2-June 27, 1915
Battle of Gorlice-Tarnow.
June 23, 1915-Sept. 12, 1917
Eleven Battles of the Isonzo.
Dec. 8, 1915-Apr. 29, 1916
Siege of Kut-al-Amara.
Feb. 19-Dec. 18, 1916
Battle of Verdun.
May 31-June 1, 1916
Battle of Jutland.
June 4-Sept. 30, 1916
Brusilov Offensive.
June 24-Nov. 13, 1916
Battle of Somme.
Mar. 11, 1917
Battle of Baghdad.
Apr. 9–15, 1917
Battle of Vimy Ridge.
July 31-Nov. 10, 1917
Third Battle of Ypres.
Oct. 24-Nov. 12, 1917
Battle of Caporetto.
Oct. 31, 1917
Battle of Beersheba.
Nov. 20-Dec. 7, 1917
Battle of Cambrai.
May 27-July 1, 1918
Battle of Chateau-Thierry/Belleau Wood.
Aug. 8-Sept. 4, 1918
Battle of Amiens.
Sept. 12–16, 1918
Battle of St. Mihiel.
Sept. 20, 1918
Battle of Megiddo.
Sept. 26-Nov. 11, 1918
Battle of Meuse-Argonne.
Nov. 11, 1918
Armistice ends the war.
Jan. 18, 1919
Peace conference opens in Paris.
June 28, 1919
Germany signs Treaty of Versailles.
July 2, 1921
Joint resolution of U.S. Congress recognizes formal end to the war.
World War II, 1939–1945
Dec., 1937-Jan., 1938
Japanese troops invade China, beginning World War II in East Asia.
Sept. 15–29, 1938
British and German leaders meet in Munich.
Sept. 1, 1939
Germany invades Poland, beginning World War II in Europe.
Oct., 1939-Dec. 7, 1941
Polish Campaign.
May-June, 1940
Germany occupies France.
July 10-Oct. 31, 1940
Battle of Britain.
Nov. 11, 1940
Battle of Taranto.
Dec. 9–13, 1940
Battle of Stdt Barr3ni.
1941–1942
Battle of Moscow.
1941–1944
Siege of Leningrad.
May 20–31, 1941
Crete campaign.
July, 1941-Sept., 1941
Battle of Smolensk.
Sept. 16–26, 1941
Battle of Kiev.
Nov. 18, 1941-June 21, 1942
Battles of Tobruk.
Dec., 1941-Apr., 1942
Battle of Bataan.
Dec. 7, 1941
Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor brings the United States into the war.
Dec. 10, 1941-Feb. 15, 1942
Battle of Singapore.
Dec. 11, 1941
Axis nations declare war on the United States.
1942–1943
Battles of Kharkov.
Feb. 19, 1942
U.S. government begins relocating persons of Japanese descent on the Pacific Coast.
May 3–8, 1942
Battle of the Coral Sea.
June 3–5, 1942
Battle of Midway.
June 17, 1942
President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves the Manhattan Project.
Aug. 7, 1942-Feb. 9, 1943
Battle of Guadalcanal.
Aug. 19, 1942
Raid on Dieppe.
Aug. 23, 1942-Feb. 2, 1943
Battle of Stalingrad.
Oct. 23-Nov. 4, 1942
Battle of El Alamein.
Feb., 1943
Casablanca Conference.
July 5–15, 1943
Battle of Kursk.
Sept. 9-Oct. 1, 1943
Battle of Salerno.
Nov., 1943-June, 1944
Battle of Monte Cassino.
Nov. 20–23, 1943
Battle of Tarawa.
Jan. 22-May 25, 1944
Battle of Anzio.
June 6, 1944
D Day: Operation Overlord’s Normandy invasion begins.
June 15-July 9, 1944
Battle of Saipan.
June 15, 1944
Superfortress bombing of Japan begins.
June 22-July 11, 1944
Operation Bagration.
July 20-Aug. 10, 1944
Battle of Guam.
July 24-Aug. 1, 1944
Battle of Tinian.
Sept. 17–26, 1944
Battle of Arnhem.
Oct. 23–26, 1944
Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Dec. 16, 1944-Jan. 25, 1945
Battle of the Bulge.
Feb. 4–11, 1945
Yalta Conference.
Feb. 19-Mar. 26, 1945
Battle of Iwo Jima.
Mar., 1945
Battle of Mandalay.
Mar. 7-May 8, 1945
Rhine Crossings.
Apr. 1-July 2, 1945
Battle of Okinawa.
Apr. 19-May 2, 1945
Battle of Berlin.
May 7, 1945
Germany signs surrender documents.
May 8, 1945
V-E Day: President Harry S. Truman declares victory in Europe.
July 17-Aug. 2, 1945
Potsdam Conference.
Aug. 6 & 9, 1945
United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Aug. 14, 1945
V-J Day: Japan accepts terms of surrender and occasion is declared “Victory in Japan” day.
Korean War, 1950–1953
June 25, 1950
Korean War begins when North Korean troops cross the thirty-eighth parallel.
July 29-Sept. 19, 1950
Battle of the Pusan Perimeter.
Sept. 15–25, 1950
Inchon Landing.
Apr. 22–30, 1951
Battle of Imjin River.
Spring, 1953
Battle of Pork Chop Hill.
July 27, 1953
Armistice ends the fighting.
Vietnam War
Aug. 18, 1945
Vietnam nationalists declare Vietnam an independent republic, beginning Indochina War with France.
Mar. 13-May 7, 1954
Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
Aug. 11, 1954
Formal peace treaty partitions the country into North and South Vietnam.
1961
North Vietnam begins struggle to absorb South Vietnam; United States gradually becomes involved.
Aug., 1964
Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Nov. 14–16, 1965
Battle of Ia Drang Valley.
Jan. 21-Apr. 6, 1968
Siege of Khe Sanh.
Jan. 30-Feb. 25, 1968
Tet Offensive.
Jan. 31-Feb. 25, 1968
Battle of Hue.
Mar. 16, 1968
My Lai Massacre.
April 29-June, 1970
U.S. troops invade Cambodia
Jan. 31, 1973
Peace accord is signed; North Vietnam begins releasing U.S. prisoners.
Mar. 29, 1973
Last U.S. troops leave Vietnam.
Apr. 30, 1975
North Vietnam occupies Saigon, ending civil war, and last U.S. advisers leave the country.
July 2, 1976
North and South Vietnam are formally united.
Caribbean Conflicts
Dec., 1956
Fidel Castro launches Cuban Revolution.
Feb., 1959
Revolution overthrows Cuban government; Castro takes power.
Apr. 17, 1961
Bay of Pigs Invasion.
Oct. 22-Nov. 3, 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis.
Apr., 1965-June, 1966
United States occupies Dominican Republic.
Oct.-Dec., 1983
United States occupies Grenada.
Dec., 1989-Jan., 1990
United States occupies Panama.
Post-Cold War Conflicts
Jan. 16-Feb. 28, 1991
Gulf War.
Dec., 1992-Mar., 1994
U.S. troops occupy Somalia.
Feb. 26, 1993
Terrorist bombing of New York City’s World Trade Center.
Apr., 1994 and Dec., 1995
U.S. troops intervene in Bosnia.
Aug. 20, 1998
United States launches missile strikes against targets in Afghanistan and the Sudan.
Dec. 16, 1998
United States bombs military sites in Iraq.
Oct. 12, 2000
Terrorist attack on USS Cole.
Sept. 11, 2001
“9/11" terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Oct. 7, 2001
United States launches invasion of Afghanistan.
Mar. 19-May 1, 2003
Iraq War.
