Getting Ready
Life in Colonial America was very different from what it is today. So much change has occurred, it can be hard to imagine what it was like to live back then. It can help to know what did and didn't happen and what kinds of material things people did and didn't have.

Activity
How much do you know about life in the first years of this nation? See if you can guess which of the following things were not true or did not happen in the year listed:

1775

• Paul Revere's ride
• David Bushnell invents a one-man submarine
• Patrick Henry delivers his "Give me liberty or give me death" speech
• George Washington celebrates his 60th birthday

1776

• Congress issues Declaration of Independence
• Machine gun invented
• Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense
• Married women are forbidden from owning property

1777

• David Bushnell invents torpedo
• Congress adopts the "Stars and Stripes" as America's official flag
• The New Testament is published in English in America for the first time
• Soldiers at Valley Forge play basketball, the nation's most popular indoor sport, to pass the time

1778

• Beethoven, age 8, is recognized as a child prodigy
• James Cook is the first Westerner to "discover" Hawaii
• Congress prohibits importing slaves into the U.S.
• Treaty is signed with the Pequot Indians giving them land in exchange for their service in the war

1779

• Washington seizes privately owned railroad lines to transport troops
• William and Mary College introduces a system that allows students to choose their courses
• Horse racing is a popular sport
• A group of slaves petitions the New Hampshire state legislature to outlaw slavery

1780

• First fountain pen made - it delivered ink to tip without having to dip a quill in an inkwell
• Population of the United States is 2.7 million people
• Pennsylvania outlaws slavery
• The first Jewish synagogue is built in America

1781

• Planet Uranus is discovered
• Unhappy with treatment by the British with whom they had fought as allies, Cherokee Indians seek peace with the Americans and other southern tribes soon follow suit
• George Eastman photographs British surrender at Yorktown
• Articles of Confederation ratified

1782

• Construction of the White House and Capitol Dome completed
• First hot air balloon constructed
• First American Catholic school is founded in Philadelphia
• Harvard Medical School opens

1783

• Mozart composes the Mass in C minor
• Great Britain recognizes the independence of the U.S.
• The Pennsylvania Evening Post becomes the first U.S. newspaper to be published daily
• Congress adopts the Pledge of Allegiance as part of the Constitution and, as a way to unify the new nation, instructs schools to begin each day with its recitation

1784

• Francis Scott Key composed the "Star Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the U.S.
• Ben Franklin invents bifocal eyeglasses
• The Carolinas outlaw deer hunting at night because horses and cows are being killed accidentally
• Spain controls travel on the Mississippi River

1785

• Jakob Grimm, author of Grimm's Fairy Tales, is born
• Women granted the right to vote
• The first regular stagecoach service between New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston begins
• North Carolina law says that even though individuals can control their own property and slaves are property, individuals must get approval from county courts before freeing any slave.

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Think More About It
How might the Revolutionary War have been different if there had been machine guns, railroads, or other technological advances like cell phones, bullet proof vests, or helicopters?

Words to know: invention, technology, history