In 1973, historian Richard B. Morris identified seven figures as key founders, based on what he called the "triple tests" of leadership, longevity, and statesmanship: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Washington.
Fact #1: These seven men are the principle Founding Fathers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison. While there were many others who contributed to the founding of the United States, these seven are considered by most as the Founding Fathers.
In 1775, political and economic concerns led the inhabitants of Britain's 13 American colonies to rebel in the War of Independence (1775-83). Although the conflict led to the loss of Britain's American territories, not everyone supported the rising and it divided families and communities across North America.
Sometime on or after June 11, 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote "United States of America" in a rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
Columbus Day is the annual U.S. commemoration of explorer Christopher Columbus' landing in the New World (at San Salvador Island, also known as Waitling Island, today part of the British Bahamas) on October 12, 1492.
The earliest populations in the Americas, before roughly 10,000 years ago, are known as Paleo-Indians. Indigenous peoples of the Americas have been linked to Siberian populations by proposed linguistic factors, the distribution of blood types, and in genetic composition as reflected by molecular data, such as DNA.
The opening of the 17th century found three countries—France, Spain, and England—contending for dominion in North America. Of these England, the tardiest on the scene, finally took control of the beginnings of what is now the United States.
On September 9, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted a new name for what had been called the "United Colonies.” The moniker United States of America has remained since then as a symbol of freedom and independence.
The Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson, and the Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, both contain the phrase "United States of America." The name was officially adopted by the second Continental Congress on September 9, 1776.
The first large wave of immigration to the U.S. began in the 1840s and lasted until 1889. During this time, more than 14 million immigrants came to the country. Most arrived from Northern or Western Europe; Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom alone accounted for 70% of the new arrivals.
By the 1770s, many colonists were angry because they did not have self-government. This meant that they could not govern themselves and make their own laws. They had to pay high taxes to the king. They felt that they were paying taxes to a government where they had no representation.
The collapse of British imperial power - all but complete by the mid-1960s - can be traced directly to the impact of World War Two. The catastrophic British defeats in Europe and Asia between 1940 and 1942 destroyed its financial and economic independence, the real foundation of the imperial system.
English settlers dominated New England and Virginia while a mixture of Dutch, Swedish, Irish, and German settled in the mid-Atlantic colonies. Aside from living on the same continent under lax British authority, and dependent on trade, there wasn't much to unite everyone.
After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sights a Bahamian island on October 12, 1492, believing he has reached East Asia.
The America First Committee was established on September 4, 1940, by Yale Law School student R. Douglas Stuart, Jr. (son of R. Douglas Stuart, co-founder of Quaker Oats).
We're going to talk about an older name for America: Turtle Island. Turtle Island is the name for the North American continent in many Native American cultures. This name comes from mythology, or rather mythologies, as every tribe has a slightly different version of Turtle Island and how it came to be.
He included on the map data gathered by Vespucci during his voyages of 1501-1502 to the New World. Waldseemüller named the new lands “America” on his 1507 map in the recognition of Vespucci's understanding that a new continent had been uncovered following Columbus' and subsequent voyages in the late 15th century.
How Old Is the United States Now? As of 2025, the United States is 249 years old. This age is measured from the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted — July 4, 1776 — when the American colonies stated their independence from Britain.
Between 2000 and 300 BCE, complex cultures began to form in Mesoamerica. Some matured into advanced pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Olmec, Teotihuacan, Mayas, Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Huastecs, Purepecha, Toltecs, and Mexica/Aztecs.
The first European countries to begin colonizing the Americas were Spain and Portugal. Spain claimed and settled Mexico, most of Central and South America, several islands in the Caribbean, and what are now Florida, California, and the Southwest region of the United States.
So, America was originally a name for a region, not a continent. And since the United States of America was the first independent country to emerge from that region, it adopted the name America as part of its official title.
Soon Dutch colonists were claiming land as far north as present day Albany, New York; as far south as to include all of present day New Jersey; to Cape Henlopen, Delaware; and as far east as the Connecticut River.
American landowners were in need of laborers and were willing to pay for a laborer's passage to America if they served them for several years. By selling passage for five to seven years worth of work, they could then start on their own in America. Many of the migrants from England died in the first few years.
Japan is usually mentioned as a rare case of a country that was never conquered or colonized. But technically, from 1945 to 1951, Japan was under the control of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers after WWII — and Okinawa stayed under U.S. administration until 1972.
