1775
March 16: Daniel Boone sets out to blaze the Wilderness Road from the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky.

April 1: Boone founds Boonesborough in Kentucky.

April 18: The American Revolution starts with the first shots fired at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.

1783
The Revolutionary War ends. Britain and the United States sign a peace treaty that gives the United States all territory east of the Mississippi River.

1803
President Thomas Jefferson purchases Louisiana from France for $15 million, doubling the size of the United States.

1804
The Lewis and Clark Expedition leaves from St. Louis on May 14.

1805
Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean in the presentday state of Oregon.

1810
The population of the United States is 7.2 million, an increase of over 36 percent since 1800.

1815
The United States defeats the British in the last battle of the War of 1812.

1821
William Becknell, a trader, leads a trading party to Santa Fe in the present-day state of New Mexico...