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A listing of many of the documents most vital to Our American History. For additional historic Supreme Court Opinions, please visit our Supreme Court Section.

1776: Declaration of Independence
1776: Lee Resolution
1777: Articles of Confederation
1778: Treaty of Alliance with France
1783: Treaty of Paris
1787-1788: Federalist Papers : No. 10 and 51
1787: Northwest Ordinance
1787: United States Constitution
1787: Virginia Plan
1789: Federal Judiciary Act
1789: President George Washington's First Inaugural Speech
1791: United States Constitution : Amendments 1-10 ( The Bill of Rights )
1795: United States Constitution : Amendments 11-27
1796: President George Washington's Farewell Address
1798: Alien and Sedition Acts
1803: Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress Regarding Lewis & Clark Expedition
1803: Louisiana Purchase Treaty
1803: Marbury v. Madison
1814: Treaty of Ghent
1819: McCulloch v. Maryland
1820: Missouri Compromise
1823: Monroe Doctrine
1824: Gibbons v. Ogden
1830: Andrew Jackson Message to Congress 'On Indian Removal'
1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
1850: Compromise of 1850
1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act
1857: Dred Scott v. Sanford
1861: Telegram Announcing the Surrender of Fort Sumter
1862: Homestead Act
1862: Morrill Act
1862: Pacific Railway Act
1863: Emancipation Proclamation
1863: Gettysburg Address
1863: War Department General Order 143: Creation of the U.S. Colored Troops
1864: Wade-Davis Bill
1865: 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery
1865: President Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
1865: Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia
1868: 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights
1868: Check for the Purchase of Alaska ("Seward's Folly")
1868: Treaty of Fort Laramie
1870: 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights
1872: Act Establishing Yellowstone National Park
1880: Thomas Edison's Patent Application for the Light Bulb
1882: Chinese Exclusion Act
1883: Pendleton Act
1887: Dawes Act
1887: Interstate Commerce Act
1890: Sherman Anti-Trust Act
1896: Plessy v. Ferguson
1898: De LÃ´me Letter
1898: Joint Resolution Annexing the Hawaiian Islands
1903: Platt Amendment
1905: Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
1913: 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Federal Income Tax
1913: 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Direct Election of U.S. Senators
1916: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916
1917: Joint Address Leading to a Declaration of War Against Germany
1917: Zimmermann Telegram
1918: President Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points
1920: 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote
1928: Boulder Canyon Project Act (Hoover Dam)
1933: National Industrial Recovery Act
1933: Tennessee Valley Authority Act
1935: National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)
1935: Social Security Act
1936: FDR's Radio Address Unveiling Second Half of the New Deal
1941: Day of Infamy Speech
1941: FDR's Annual Message (Four Freedoms Speech) to Congress
1941: Lend-Lease Act
1941: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry
1942: Executive Order 9066: Japanese Relocation Order
1944: General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Order of the Day (D-Day Invasion)
1944: Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill)
1945: Surrender of Germany
1945: Surrender of Japan
1945: United Nations Charter
1947: Truman Doctrine
1948: Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces
1948: Marshall Plan
1948: Press Release Announcing U.S. Recognition of Israel
1953: Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State
1954: Brown v. Board of Education
1954: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy
1956: National Interstate and Defense Highways Act
1957: Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School
1961: Executive Order 10924: Establishment of the Peace Corps
1961: JFK's Inaugural Address
1961: President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address
1962: Transcript of John Glenn's Official Communication with Command Center
1963: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech
1963: Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
1963: Official Program for the March on Washington
1964: Civil Rights Act
1964: Tonkin Gulf Resolution
1965: Social Security Act Amendments (Medicare and Medicaid)
1965: Voting Rights Act
1973: Roe v. Wade

1776: Declaration of Independence ›

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