# American History research notes

Reviewed 30 September 2026. This independent catalog contains **55 events, 55 source assignments (54 distinct URLs), 41 geographic settings and 10 related-event links**. It covers selected milestones from 1565 to 2001.

The scope is an introductory visual history, not comprehensive coverage. It begins with selected colonial foundations; Indigenous histories long precede this range. Selection includes institutions, war, forced removal, enslavement and emancipation, immigration, economic change, civil rights, infrastructure and science. Later additions should expand important gaps rather than imply that each year needs an event.

## Source approach

Each event links directly to an institutional page supporting its date and summary. Most constitutional and statutory records use National Archives document reproductions/transcriptions plus their introductions. Historical accounts also come from the National Park Service, Library of Congress, NASA and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. No partisan advocacy source is used. Sources were reviewed using live institutional pages/search results on the date above. Network checks are separate from substantive source review; a successful HTTP response alone does not verify a claim.

Core collections include the [National Archives milestone documents](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/list), [National Park Service history resources](https://www.nps.gov/subjects/history/index.htm), and [Library of Congress primary-source classroom materials](https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/). Individual event cards provide direct supporting links and qualifications. Images are linked through institutions; no unlicensed images have been copied into this catalog.

| Period | Events |
| --- | ---: |
| Colonial foundations | 6 |
| Revolution and founding | 10 |
| Expansion and reform | 7 |
| Civil War and Reconstruction | 9 |
| Industry and change | 3 |
| World wars and Depression | 10 |
| Postwar America | 8 |
| Recent history | 2 |

## Dating and interpretation

Dates identify the named milestone, not a claim that its consequences occurred at once. The notes distinguish the Declaration's adoption and signing, the Articles' adoption and ratification, the Constitution's signing and implementation, constitutional ratification and certification, war announcements and formal surrender, and civil rights legislation and enforcement. A known year or multi-year period can be secure at its stated resolution without implying a precise day.

The Louisiana treaty is dated April 30, 1803; ratification and transfer of possession followed later. Apollo 11 landed July 20 UTC; the first step was July 21 UTC and July 20 in United States time zones. These differences are retained explicitly. No event uses Biblical chronology or prophecy classifications.

Uncertainty remains about individuals' exact legal conditions in early Virginia, mortality totals associated with forced removal, and the interpretation and implementation of historical policies. The catalog avoids falsely precise totals and records these distinctions in notes. It describes documented actions without assigning partisan motives or presenting a contested causal interpretation as settled fact.

## Geographic limits

Markers are orientation points or explicitly regional circles. They are not historic borders, surveyed event coordinates, military positions or proof that every participant occupied a single point. National acts often use Washington as a government association; ratification was a multi-state process. Early federal events use the actual earlier meeting cities. Overseas places appear where United States events occurred, including treaty and surrender sites.

The Lewis and Clark route joins three selected camp regions; straight segments are **not** the expedition's traveled route. Cherokee removal uses homeland/destination regions without drawing a misleading single route. Apollo uses launch and mission-control locations on Earth and clearly says they are not the lunar landing. September 11 displays three actual attack/crash locations without inventing flight paths.

## Model separation and checks

American records and locations have `us-` IDs and reside in `js/data/american-history-data.js`. The page adapter supplies the shared study engine with this catalog and a dedicated validator. It never appends records to the Biblical catalog. Scripture arrays are intentionally empty; relationships are historical connections only.

The dedicated tests check source coverage, stable and unique IDs, model isolation, date ordering, shared tag search and clearing, map lookups, same-place groups, route qualifications, relationship integrity, validation failures, and the page adapter. Live browser verification is recorded in the mission's overall test report.

## Independent second review — 1 October 2026

A reviewer separate from the catalog author read all 55 records and 41 geographic settings and checked the supporting institutional passages. Repository audit files retain record-level decisions and content hashes. URL checks found 52 reachable source assignments, zero confirmed broken links and three Library of Congress pages that returned an automated-access block. Alternative institutional evidence was consulted for those three records. HTTP success alone was not treated as claim verification.

Two corrections resulted. Georgia's December 1865 ratification now maps to **Milledgeville**, its capital then, using [Library of Congress provenance](https://www.loc.gov/item/2017879813/). The Little Rock note now distinguishes the September 23 proclamation from **Executive Order 10730 on September 24** and the September 25 escorted school entry. The [National Archives page](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-10730) has an inconsistent introduction; its own dated transcription and the [presidential press release](https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/research/online-documents/civil-rights-little-rock/press-release-eo-10730.pdf) support September 24. Stable event IDs and source records remain intact.

## Priorities for further research

Substantial gaps include precolonial Indigenous histories; additional French, Dutch and Spanish colonial contexts; seventeenth/eighteenth-century conflicts; abolitionist and labor organizing; the Civil War outside selected anchors; Reconstruction's end; western settlement and conflicts; territories and overseas expansion; the Great Migration; the Korean and Vietnam wars; the Cold War; environmental history; and most events after 1969. Adding these responsibly requires event-specific institutional sources and review of granularity, interpretation and geography. The current sparse later coverage must not be described as an exhaustive national timeline.