Henry George publishes Progress and Poverty advocating a single land tax.
1880
Founding of the American branch of the Salvation Army.
1881
First publication of the Revised Version of the Bible in America.
1883
Mary Baker Eddy publishes her Key to the Scriptures, which becomes the basis of Christian Science.
1890
Wilford Woodruff, the LDS president, says that God had instructed him that his church should abandon polygamy.
1891
The Blackstone Petition is presented to President Harrison, calling upon him to call a conference in support of resettling the Jewish in Palestine.
1893
The Anti-Saloon League is formed.
1896
Utah, whose entry had been long delayed by concern over prior Mormon beliefs in polygamy, is admitted as the forty-fifth state after its leaders renounce this doctrine.
1898
Numerous pastors view the Spanish-American War as a way of fulfilling America’s destiny to spread liberty and Christianity.
1899
The Gideons are founded in Janesville, Wisconsin, for the purpose of distributing copies of the Bible for free.
1901
Publication of the American Standard Version of the Bible, revising King James.
1906
Sermons by William J. Seymour initiate the Azusa Street revivals in southern California.
1909
The publication of the Scofield Reference Bible, the notes to which furthered the ideas of premillennial dispensationalism.
1910–1915 Princeton University professors and others publish a twelve-volume collection known as The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth that lays the basis for American fundamentalism.
1917
The United States enters World War I on the side of the Allies.
The Jewish Publication Society publishes a translation of the Hebrew Bible into English.
xxxviii1919
The Eighteenth Amendment provides for national alcoholic prohibition.
American fundamentalists, convened by William Bell Riley, gather in Philadelphia to form the World’s Christian Fundamentals Association.
1920
The Nineteenth Amendment, prohibiting discrimination against women in voting, is adopted.
1923
Professor Edgar J. Goodspeed of the University of Chicago publishes the first so-called American version of the New Testament but is widely criticized for using idioms.
1925
The Scopes Trial highlights the widening gaps between American fundamentalism and liberalism.
1929
The collapse of the stock market signals the beginning of the Great Depression.
1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first presidential inaugural address.
1941
President Roosevelt proclaims the week of Thanksgiving to be National Bible Week.
1945
The dropping of two atomic bombs on Japanese cities provides a prototype for another way that the world might one day end.
1947
First publication of the Revised Standard Version of the New Testament in the United States.
1948
The modern state of Israel is created and is quickly recognized by President Harry S. Truman. This development stirs increased millennial expectations.
1950
L. Ron Hubbard first publishes his Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.
1952
Publication of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible is endorsed by the National Council of Churches.
1953
The first National Prayer Breakfast is held.
1954
Congress adds the words “Under God” to the pledge to the American flag.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that racial discrimination violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1960
John F. Kennedy becomes the first Roman Catholic to be elected as U.S. president.
1962
The U.S. Supreme Court declares that public devotional prayer is unconstitutional in state-supported schools.
1963
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated.
The U.S. Supreme Court outlaws devotional readings of the Bible in public schools.
1966
The American Bible Society publishes Today’s English Version of the Bible, the New Testament part of which is entitled Good News for Modern Man.
xxxix1967
Israel defeats an Arab attack and takes new territory including Jerusalem, sparking hopes among evangelical Christians that they might rebuild the temple and hasten the second coming of Christ.
1970
Hal Lindsey publishes The Late Great Planet Earth, stirring renewed millennial expectations.
1973
The U.S. Supreme Court legalizes most abortions in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy.
1974
President Richard M. Nixon resigns from office after impeachment proceedings begin in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.
1976
The United States celebrates the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence.
Jimmy Carter defeats Gerald Ford for the presidency. Newsweek magazine declares 1976 to be the “Year of the Evangelical.”
1977
Dr. James Dobson creates Focus on the Family.
1979
Rev. Jerry Falwell founds the Moral Majority, designed to support conservative causes.
1983
President Ronald Reagan delivers his “Evil Empire” Speech.
President Reagan, at congressional request, declares the Year of the Bible.
1985
The Jewish Publication Society publishes a translation of the Hebrew Bible into English called the Tanakh.
1986
President Ronald Reagan inscribes a Bible for Oliver North to deliver to Iranians with whom he was negotiating the sale of weapons in exchange for the release of hostages in Lebanon.
1987
The United States celebrates the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.
2008
Barack Obama becomes the first African American to be elected as president of the United States.
2012
Republicans nominate Mitt Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, for president, but he
