AP US History Presidents timeline
AP US History – Presidents Timeline w/ Events & Themes
Washington administration
Election year | Term Start Year | President | Notes / Events/ Themes |
1788-89 | 1789 | Washington | *main goal: set precedents for presidency
= debate between Jeffersonians and Hamiltonians
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1792 | 1793 | Washington reelected | *"Citizen Genet" (1793)
= prevented war
= establishing "executive privilege"
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Other events/ Themes | *Setting the example for future Presidents
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Early Republic: Adams to Monroe
Election year | Term Start Year | President | Notes / Events/ Themes |
1796 | 1797 | Adams | *avoided war w/ France
= "nullification"
Leads to:
= establishes judicial review |
1800 | 1801 | Jefferson | *Revolution of 1800
* majority winner requirement rewards 2-party system
Louisiana Purchase (1802)
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1804 | 1805 | Jefferson | *British-French conflict:
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1808 | 1809 | Madison | Events leading to War of 1812
* Fr agreed to trade w US, in exchange for US stopping trade w/ Briotain * British step up embargo & impressment
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1812 | 1813 | Madison | Effects of War of 1812:
* federalists demanded changes in Constitution required 2/3ds vote for trade, new states, and limiting president to 1 term
* manufacturing increased during the War of 1812
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1816 | 1817 | Monroe | Era of Good Feelings
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1820 | 1821 | Monroe | *Monroe Doctrine (1823)
* US would not accept any new colonization efforts by Euopeans * Europe not to interfere in Americas (including Russia bc Russia was tyring to colonize Alaska)
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Antebellum
Election year | Term Start Year | President | Notes / Events/ Themes |
1824 | 1825 | John Quincy Adams | Election of 1824:
Adams as president:
nullification movement starts
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1828 | 1829 | Jackson | *1st president not born in Virginia or named Adams
= westerner, Tennessee * considered self-made man
Issues:
* vetoed new charter * put federal money in other banks * paper money, supported "hard currency" = gold and silver (note: silver later seen as soft money after numerous mines discovered in late 1800s)
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1832 | 1833 | Jackson | Indian affairs:
* Dade Massacre, 1835
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1836 | 1837 | Van Buren | Van Buren continued Jackson economic policies, anti-national bank
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1840 | 1841-1841 | William Henry Harrison | elected 1840 as a Whig
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1841 | John Tyler assumes office | John Tyler = former Democrat, assumed office as Whig (VP to Harrison)
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1844 | 1845 | James K. Polk | * defeated Henry Clay in presidential election
Mexican-American War, 1846-48
* no territory taken from Mexico could have slavery
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1848 | 1847-1850 | Zachary Taylor | from Virginia, not a politician, recruited by the Whigs to run for president given his fame as military hero from Mexican-American War
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1850 | Millard Fillmore assumes office | Whig from upstate New York
biggest event: Compromise of 1850
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1852 | 1853 | Franklin Pierce | *pro-Southern northerner Democrat
* goal was to expand U.S. slavery
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1856 | 1857 | James S. Buchanan | *pro-Southern, northern Democrat
* does nothing to stop it, especially after Lincoln’s election (Nov. 1860) up to leaving office in March, 1861 |
Lincoln, Civil War, Reconstruction
Election year | Term Start Year | President | Notes / Events/ Themes |
1860 | 1861 | Abraham Lincoln | Rise of Lincoln’ political career
Stories:
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1864 | 1865-1865 | Abraham Lincoln | *“western” Republican – from Illinois
* Douglas wins the election
= let people in states and territories decide for themselves
* slavery wrong, but didn’t argue against ending it, only containing it to where it already existed (South) * sought to contain and not banish slavery
“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”
In 1862 issued Emancipation Proclamation:
See concepts chart for more on Lincoln’s war strategies |
1865 | Andrew Johnson assumes office | * border state politician
* override his veto of Civil Rights Act of 1866, which gave citizenship to freedmen (this is before 14th</sup* Amendment)
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1868 | 1869 | Ullysses S. Grant | *war hero, elected easily
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1872 | 1873 | Ullysses S. Grant | *lost popularity bc of corruption in his government
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Gilded Age, Industrialization, Immigration
Election year | Term Start Year | President | Notes / Events/ Themes |
1876 | 1877 | Hayes | *Republican, Civil War general, supporter of Reconstruction
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1880 | 1881-1881 | James Garfield | * Republican, Civil War general
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1881 | 1881-1885 | Chester Arthur assumes office | * Panic of 1884 led to public discontent and election of Cleveland |
1884 | 1885 | Cleveland | *only president to serve two, non-consecutive terms
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1888 | 1889 | Benjamin Harrison | * Republican, grandson of President William Henry Harrison
= “protectionism”
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1892 | 1893 | Grover S. Cleveland | *campaigned on reducing the tariff rates
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1896 | 1897 | William McKinley
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*raised tariffs via Dingley Tariff of 1897
Spanish-American War, 1898
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1900 | 1901-1901 | William McKinley | *McKinley hugely popular following Span-Am war, easily reelected
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Progressive Era
Election year | Term Start Year | President | Notes / Events/ Themes |
1901 | Theodore Roosevelt
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*NY Republican, known as “TR” and “Teddy”
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1904 | 1905 | Theodore Roosevelt | *won landslide election, 1904
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1908 | 1909 | William Howard Taft
Trust busting Dollar Diplomacy |
*Ohio Republican
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1912 | 1913 | Woodrow Wilson
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*southern Democrat, progressive
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1916 | 1917 | Woodrow Wilson
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*won 2nd</sup* term promising to keep US out of WWI
After the War, Wilson went to Europe to negotiate peace deal and promote his “Fourteen Points” agenda for world affairs (democratic ideals such as of self-determination, but also low tariffs, peace, freedom of seas)
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1920 | 1921 | Warren Harding
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*Ohio Republican, elected on pro-business, tax reform agenda (lowered taxes)
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1921 | Calvin Coolidge
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*New Hampshire Republican
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1924 | 1925 | Calvin Coolidge | |
1928 | 1929 | Herbert Hoover
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*Republican, made famous by helping feed and rebuild Europe after WWI (appointed by Woodrow Wilson as Director of U.S. Food Commission)
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FDR/ New Deal/ WWII
Election year | Term Start Year | President | Notes / Events/ Themes |
1932 | 1933 | Franklin Roosevelt
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*NY Democrat
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1936 | 1937 | FDR reelected
– failed “court packing scheme” but Supreme Court starts more favorable rulings for economic interventions
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FDR’s second term
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1940 | 1941 | FDR reelected
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WWII starts 1941 |
1944 | 1945-1945 | FDR reelected | died in office 1945 |
1945 | Harry Truman | *assumes FDR’s term
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1948 | 1949 | Harry Truman | relection was unexpected ("Dewey Defeats Truman" headlines)
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Cold War to 1970s
Election year | Term Start Year | President | Notes / Events/ Themes |
1952 | 1953 | Dwight Eisenhower | |
1956 | 1957 | Dwight Eisenhower | |
1960 | 1961-1963 | John F. Kennedy | |
1963 | Lyndon B. Johnson | ||
1964 | 1965 | Lyndon B. Johnson | |
1968 | 1969 | Richard M. Nixon | |
1972 | 1972-1973 | Richard M. Nixon | |
1973 | Gerald Ford | ||
1976 | 1977 | James "Jimmy" Carter |
1980s to Current
Election year | Term Start Year | President | Notes / Events/ Themes |
1980 | 1981 | Ronald Reagan |
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1984 | 1985 | Ronald Reagan |
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1988 | 1989 | George H.W. Bush |
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1992 | 1993 | Bill Clinton |
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1996 | 1997 | Bill Clinton |
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2000 | 2001 | George H. Bush |
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2004 | 2005 | George H. Bush |
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2008 | 2009 | Barack Obama |
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2012 | 2013 | Barack Obama | |
2016 | 2017 | Donald Trump | |
2020 | 2021 | Joseph Biden |