The 16 Most Important Moments in American History

A river crossing in the dark, a signature on parchment, a footprint on the Moon. Which one changed the country most?

1. 1
   The Apollo 11 Moon Landing

   July 1969, and the first footprints left on another world.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Signing the Declaration of Independence

   Philadelphia, July 1776, and the sentence that a country has been arguing about ever since.
   647pts
3. 3
   The Homestead Act

   The 1862 law that handed 160-acre plots to anyone willing to farm them for five years.
   560pts
4. 4
   Women Winning the Vote

   The 19th Amendment's ratification in August 1920, after seventy years of campaigning.
   548pts
5. 5
   The Civil Rights Act of 1964

   The law that ended legal segregation in public accommodation and employment.
   548pts
6. 6
   The March on Washington

   A quarter of a million people at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963.
   388pts
7. 7
   The Gettysburg Address

   Two minutes in November 1863 that redefined what the war was being fought for.
   388pts
8. 8
   The Lewis and Clark Expedition

   The 1804–06 journey that mapped a route from the Missouri to the Pacific.
   388pts
9. 9
   The Transcontinental Railroad

   The golden spike at Promontory Summit in 1869 joined the coasts by rail.
   388pts
10. 10
    The Emancipation Proclamation

    Lincoln's order of 1 January 1863 declaring enslaved people in the rebelling states free.
    388pts
11. 11
    Washington Crossing the Delaware

    The night march of 25 December 1776 that turned a losing revolution around at Trenton.
    320pts
12. 12
    The Constitutional Convention

    A summer of closed-door arguments in 1787 that produced the framework still in use.
    241pts
13. 13
    The Wright Brothers' First Flight

    Twelve seconds over Kitty Hawk in December 1903.
    241pts
14. 14
    The Boston Tea Party

    December 1773, when a cargo of tea went into the harbour and the argument stopped being polite.
    149pts
15. 15
    The Erie Canal Opening

    The 1825 waterway that connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic and made New York a port.
    149pts
16. 16
    The Louisiana Purchase

    The 1803 deal with France that doubled the size of the United States overnight.
    0pts

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