| 1780 |
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Papers found on captured British messenger Major John Andre reveal General Benedict Arnold's plan to surrender to the British the American fort in his command at West Point, New York.
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Over 5,000 American soldiers surrender at Charleston, South Carolina in the worst American defeat of the Revolutionary War.
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| 1781 |
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Striking their own blow for liberty, enslaved African Americans rebel in Williamsburg, Virginia. |
|  |
British General Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, ending the fighting in the American Revolution. |
| 1782 |
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Many Loyalists--Americans who wanted to remain under British rule and did not support the Revolution--begin to leave the United States. Some return to Britain, but most move to Canada. |
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Harvard Medical School opens. |
| 1783 |
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The American Revolution officially ends when the United States and Britain sign the Treaty of Paris. |
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Noah Webster publishes his "Blue-Backed Speller," which standardizes spelling and word usage and becomes the chief textbook for generations of American schoolchildren. |
| 1784 |
 |
A new trade route opens for American merchants when the "Empress of China" sails from New Jersey around Cape Horn to the Orient, opening a profitable trade with China.
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| 1785 |
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Regular stage routes linking New York City, Boston, Albany and Philadelphia begin. |
| 1786 |
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Congress adopts a new coinage system based on the Spanish dollar, replacing British pounds used during the colonial era. |
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Inventor John Fitch sails the first steamboat in America on the Delaware River. |
| 1787 |  |
The Northwest Ordinance provides a plan for governing the region northwest of the Ohio River and admitting new states to the Union. |
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John Cabot and Joshua Fisher establish the first American cotton mill at Beverly, Massachusetts. |
| 1788 |
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The Constitution becomes effective, creating a new system of government for America made up of three branches--the Executive (the president), the Legislative (the Senate and the House of Representatives) and the Judicial (the Supreme Court). |
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African Americans found the First African Baptist Church, the first African-American church in the United States. |
| 1789 |
|
George Washington becomes the first president of the United States. |
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Thanksgiving is celebrated for the first time as a national holiday. |
