As the United States celebrates its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary in 2026, millions of Americans will reflect on the nation’s history. American history includes a great many impactful events that changed the country forever. The following are some events of note as the United States of America celebrates 250 years of nationhood.
The Louisiana Purchase (1803): Soaring prices have been the norm in the real estate market in recent years, but it was once possible to procure 530 million acres of North American territory for $15 million. That’s precisely what happened in 1803 when the U.S. and France completed the Louisiana Purchase. According to the Office of the Historian of the U.S. Department of State, President Thomas Jefferson sent James Monroe to France to work alongside U.S. Minister to France Robert Livingston in an effort to purchase New Orleans and West Florida for $10 million. But the emissaries were surprised when Napoleon Bonaparte offered the whole territory of Louisiana to the U.S. for $15 million. Native Americans still inhabited much of the area that was part of the sale, but the transaction included the entirety of what is now Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, as well as portions of present-day Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Minnesota.
President James Monroe addresses Congress (December 1823): During his annual message to Congress in late 1823, President James Monroe included a warning to European powers that they should not interfere in affairs in the Americas. According to The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the powers that be in the United States were wary of European intervention in Florida, the Pacific Northwest and Latin America. The result was a statement from President Monroe, later referred to as the Monroe Doctrine, announcing that the western hemisphere was closed to further colonization by European nations. President Monroe also noted that the U.S. would not interfere in the internal affairs of nations in Europe.
Sinking of the Lusitania (1915): Though the Lusitania was a British-owned ship, the U.S. Library of Congress notes its passengers included more than 120 Americans on May 7, 1915, the day the luxury ocean liner was torpedoed by a German U-boat. History.com notes the Imperial German Embassy in Washington, D.C., placed ads in American newspapers reminding Americans that Germany and Britain were at war and that ships flying the flag of Great Britain were vulnerable to attack. Despite the warnings, Americans still boarded the Lusitania, and the sinking of the ship strained relations between the neutral United States and Germany. Anti-German sentiments began to rise in the U.S. after the sinking of the ship, and such sentiments remained even as the U.S. maintained its neutral status into 1917. The final straw, and one that called to mind the sinking of the Lusitania nearly two years prior, was the interception of the Zimmerman telegram, which revealed German intentions to return to submarine warfare and target all ships, including those carrying American passengers.
Wall Street crashes on Black Monday (1929): The stock market crash that began in October 1929 marked an end to the financial boom of the 1920s that the Federal Reserve notes had begun in August 1921 and lasted until September 1929. On what’s become known to historians as Black Monday (October 28, 1929), the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by nearly 13 percent, a fall that preceded an almost 12 percent decline on the following day. By the summer of 1932, the Dow had fallen to its lowest value of the twentieth century and 89 percent below its peak. Black Monday marked the beginning of the Great Depression, and the Federal Reserve notes the Dow did not return to its pre-crash heights until 1954.
