Timeline of United States diplomatic history

17th century

• 1689–1697 — King William's War against France and French Canada.
• 1690 — Massachusetts troops capture French fortress of Port Royal
• 1697 — Peace of Ryswick ends the war; captured territories restored.

18th century

• 1702–1713 – Queen Anne's War against France, Spain and its colonies. Indian allies of the French raided New England villages. South Carolina forces raided Spanish Florida.
• 1713 – Treaty of Utrecht ends the war; Britain keeps Newfoundland and Acadia from France.
• 1715–1728 – Yamasee War against Yamasee tribe in South Carolina and its allies.
• 1721 – Treaty with South Carolina established with the Cherokee and the Province of South Carolina which ceded land between the Santee, Saluda, and Edisto Rivers to the Province of South Carolina.
• 1727 – Treaty of Nikwasi established a trade agreement between the Cherokee and the Province of North Carolina.
• 1739–1742 – War of Jenkins' Ear against Spain.
• 1740–1748 – King George's War with France.
• 1754–1763 – French and Indian War with France; major British victory and they keep French Canada. American colonists played a major role but were not given any of the spoils.
• 1754 – Benjamin Franklin proposes the Albany Plan of Union, which would establish a federal government for eleven of the colonies in British North America to adjudicate colonial territorial disputes and diplomatic policy towards Native Americans; it is rejected by most of the colonial governments and never goes into effect.
• 1761 – Treaty of Long-Island-on-the-Holston established with the Cherokee and the Colony of Virginia which ended the Anglo-Cherokee war with the colony.
• 1762 – Treaty of Charlestown established with the Cherokee and the Province of South Carolina which ended the Anglo-Cherokee war with the colony.
• 1763 – Pontiac's War British war with western Indians.
• 1774 – The Thirteen Colonies convene the First Continental Congress and adopt a boycott of British goods and embargo on American exports in protest of the Intolerable Acts.
• 1775 – Regular troops of the British Army and minutemen of colonial militias exchange fire at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, beginning the American Revolutionary War.
• 1775 – The Second Continental Congress sends the Olive Branch Petition to King George III pleading their loyalty to the British Crown; it is ignored and the King issues the Proclamation of Rebellion.
• 1776 – Thirteen United Colonies declared independence as the United States of America on July 2; Declaration of Independence adopted on July 4
• 1776 – Three commissioners sent to Europe to negotiate treaties. Britain bans trade with the Thirteen Colonies, and the Second Continental Congress responds by opening American ports to all foreign vessels except from Great Britain. The Second Continental Congress also adopts the Model Treaty as a template for any future trade agreements with European countries such as France and Spain.
• 1776 – Treaty of Watertown, the first treaty by the independent United States, is signed establishing a military alliance with the Miꞌkmaq tribe.
• 1777 – European officers join the Continental Army, including Marquis de Lafayette, Johann de Kalb, Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, and Tadeusz Kościuszko
• 1777 – Treaty of Dewitt's Corner between the Overhill Cherokee and the State of South Carolina which ceded the lands of the Cherokee Lower Towns in the State of South Carolina, except for a narrow strip of what is now Oconee County.
• 1777 – France decides to recognize America in December after victory at Saratoga, New York
• 1778 – Treaty of Alliance with France. Negotiated by Benjamin Franklin, the US and France agreed to a military alliance; France sends naval and land forces, and much-needed munitions.
• 1778 – Carlisle Peace Commission sent by Great Britain; offers Americans all the terms they sought in 1775, but not independence; rejected.
• 1779 – Spain enters the war as an ally of France ; John Jay appointed minister to Spain; he obtains money but not recognition.
• 1779 – John Adams sent to Paris, to negotiate peace terms with Great Britain
• 1780 – Russia proclaims "armed neutrality" which helps Allies
• 1780–81 – Russia and Austria propose peace terms; rejected by Adams.
• 1781 – Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens and Thomas Jefferson named to assist Adams in peace negotiations; the Congress of the Confederation insists on independence; all else is negotiable
• 1782 – The Dutch Republic recognizes American independence and signs treaty of commerce and friendship; Dutch bankers loan US$2 million for war supplies
• 1783 – Treaty of Paris with Britain. Ends Revolutionary War; US boundaries confirmed as British North America on north, Mississippi River on west, Florida on south. Britain gives Florida to Spain.
• 1783 – A commercial treaty with Sweden
• 1784 – British allow trade with America but forbid some American food exports to West Indies; British exports to America reach £3.7 million, imports only £750,000; imbalance causes shortage of gold in US.
• 1784 – Treaty of Fort Stanwix in which the Iroquois Confederacy cedes all lands west of the Niagara River to the United States.
• 1785 – Treaty of Hopewell
• 1785 – Adams appointed first minister to Court of St James's ; Jefferson replaces Franklin as minister to France.
• 1785–86 – A commercial treaty with Prussia
• 1786 – March 25 A team of American diplomats arrive in Algiers to begin talks on paying tribute and a ransom to free the enslaved American sailors.
• 1789 – Jay–Gardoqui Treaty with Spain, gave Spain exclusive right to navigate Mississippi River for 25 years; not ratified due to western opposition
• 1789 – Treaty of Fort Harmar
• 1791 – Treaty of Holston
• 1791 – In response to the beginning of the Haitian Revolution, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson proposes limited aid to help suppress the revolt but also pressures the French government to reach a settlement with the Haitian revolutionaries.
• 1792
• 1793–1815 – Major worldwide war between Great Britain and France ; America neutral until 1812 and demands the right to do business with both sides
• 1794 -:— March 20 Congress votes to establish a navy and to spend $1 million building six frigates. Birth of the United States Navy.
• 1794 — The United States expels French Ambassador Edmond-Charles Genêt for his attempts to recruit privateers in violation of U.S. neutrality policy.
• 1795 –
• 1796 – Treaty of Colerain
• 1796 – Treaty of Madrid established boundaries with the Spanish colonies of Florida and Louisiana and guaranteed navigation rights on the Mississippi River. It becomes law.
• 1797 –
• First Treaty of Tellico with the Cherokee Nation
• 1798 – XYZ Affair; humiliation by French diplomats; threat of war with France
• 1798–1800 – Quasi-War; undeclared naval war with France.
• 1800 –

1801 – 1865

• Early 19th century — The Barbary states of Algiers, Morocco, Tripoli, and Tunis require America to pay protection money under the Barbary treaties.
• 1801—

• 1803 — Louisiana Purchase from France for $15,000,000; financed by sale of American bonds in London, and shipment of gold from London to Paris.
• 1805
• 1806 — Essex Case; British reverse policy and seize American ships trading with French colonies; America responds with Non-Importation Act stopping imports of some items from Great Britain
• 1806 — Napoleon issues Berlin Decree, a paper blockade of Great Britain
• 1806 — diplomats negotiate treaty with Britain to extend the expiring Jay Treaty; rejected by Jefferson and never in effect as relations deteriorate
• 1807 — US Navy humiliated by Royal Navy in Chesapeake–Leopard affair; demand for war; Jefferson responds with economic warfare using embargoes
• 1807–09 — Embargo Act, against Great Britain and France during their wars
• 1807–12 — Impressment of 6,000 sailors from American ships with US citizenship into the Royal Navy; Great Britain ignores vehement American protests
• 1812 — America declares war on Great Britain, beginning the War of 1812.
• 1812 — US forces invade Canada to gain a bargaining chip; they are repeatedly repulsed; The US Army at Detroit surrenders without a fight.
• 1813 — US wins control of Lake Erie and Western Ontario; British and Indians defeated and their leader Tecumseh killed; end of Indian threats to American settlements
• 1814 — Treaty of Fort Jackson signals American success in Alabama
• 1814 — British under Major General Robert Ross raid and burn Washington; are repulsed at Baltimore, with Ross killed.
• 1814 — British invasion of northern New York defeated
• 1814 — December 24: Treaty of Ghent signed in Belgium; providing status quo ante bellum ; Great Britain no longer needs impressment and stops.
• 1815 — British invasion army decisively defeated at the Battle of New Orleans
• 1815 — Treaties of Portage des Sioux
• 1818 — London Convention of 1818, between the US and Great Britain
• 1819 — Adams-Onís Treaty: Spain cedes Florida to America for $5,000,000; America agrees to assume claims against Spain, America gives up claims to Texas.
• 1823 — Monroe Doctrine. British propose America join in stating that European powers will not be permitted further American colonization. President James Monroe states it on December 2 as independent American policy.
• 1826 — Treaty of Mississinewas, US obtains lands in Ohio and Michigan.
• 1832 — First Sumatran expedition, in retaliation for the seizing of American ship Friendship of Salem while engaged in the East Indies pepper trade.
• 1832 — Treaty of Cusseta, US obtains Creek lands in east
• 1832 — Treaty of Tippecanoe US obtains lands in Indiana.
• 1833 — Argentina. US Navy shells the Falkland Islands, at the time under Argentine control, in retaliation for the seizing of American ships fishing in Argentine waters.
• 1837 — Caroline affair; Canadian military enters US territory to burn a ship used by Canadian rebels.
• 1838 — Aroostook War re: Maine-New Brunswick boundary; no combat
• 1842 — Webster-Ashburton Treaty-settles US-Canada border, settling Aroostook War and Caroline affair.
• 1843 — Treaty of Bird's Fort between Texas and local tribes.
• 1844 — Oregon Question; America and Britain at sword's point; "54-40 or fight" is American slogan
• 1844 — Treaty of Wanghia expands trade with China.
• 1845 — Annexation of Republic of Texas; Mexico breaks relations in retaliation
• 1845 — Slidell Mission fails to avert war with Mexico
• 1846 — Oregon crisis ended by compromise that splits the region, with British Columbia to Great Britain, and Washington, Idaho, and Oregon to U.S.
• 1846 — Mexican-American War begins.
• 1848 — Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; settled Mexican-American War, Rio Grande as US border; territory of New Mexico rest of west ceded to America, especially California. US pays Mexico $15,000,000 and assumes $3,250,000 liability against Mexico.
• 1849 — Hawaiian-American Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation signed with the Kingdom of Hawaii
• 1850 — Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. America and Great Britain agreed that both nations were not to colonize or control any Central American republic, neither nation would seek exclusive control of Isthmian canal, if canal built protected by both nations for neutrality and security. Any canal built open to all nations on equal terms.
• 1853 — Gadsden Purchase: purchase of 30,000 square miles in southern Arizona for $10,000,000 for purpose of railroad connections
• 1854 — Kanagawa Treaty; Matthew Perry to Tokyo in 1853; returning 1854 with seven warships; treaty opened two Japanese ports and guaranteeing the safety of shipwrecked American seamen.
• 1856 — Siam. Harris Treaty of 1856; adds extraterritoriality status for US citizens to provisions of Roberts Treaty of 1833, and appointment of a US consul (representative).
• 1857 — Nicaragua; US Navy forces the surrender of filibusterer William Walker, who had tried to seize control of the country.
• 1858 — Modern-era Japan. Harris Treaty of 1858.
• 1858 — Yankton Treaty
• 1858 — Outrages at Jaffa resulted in significant US efforts to coordinate with and pressure Ottoman officials, growing US influence and strength in the region.
• 1859 — Pig War: a local confrontation over an island near Vancouver, Canada; the boundary is settled by arbitration; the pig is the only casualty
• 1861–65 — Lincoln threatens war against any country that recognizes the Confederacy; no country does so, but France comes close but will not act unless Britain goes along.
• 1861 — 19 April. President Abraham Lincoln proclaims blockade of Confederate States of America, giving the Confederacy some legitimacy
• 1861 — 13 May. Britain issues a proclamation of neutrality, and recognizes the belligerent rights of the Confederacy. However, it does not recognize the Confederate government.
• 1864–65 — Maximilian Affair: In defiance of the Monroe Doctrine, French Emperor Napoleon III placed Archduke Maximilian on Mexican throne and French army suppresses Mexican resistance. Washington warns France against intervention, with 50,000 combat troops sent to the Mexican border; France withdraws. Mexicans overthrow and execute Maximilian.

1865 – 1900

• 1866 – 26 July. Atlantic Cable opens telegraphic link with Europe.
• 1867 – Alaska Purchase: US purchases Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000; most Russians depart except for some church missionaries.
• 1864 – Treaty on Naturalization with North German Confederation marked first recognition by a European power of the right of its subjects to become naturalized US citizens.
• 1868 – Burlingame Treaty established formal friendly relations with China and placed them on most favored nation status, Chinese immigration encouraged; reversed in 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
• 1871 – Alabama Claims. During the Civil War, Confederate States of America raider built in Great Britain caused direct and collateral damage to US ships; US awarded $15,500,000 by international tribunal and issue settled peacefully.
• 1875 – Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 with the Kingdom of Hawaii established free access to American markets for Hawaiian sugar and other products, and also ceded Puʻu Loa, which became Pearl Harbor
• 1891 – Baltimore crisis, minor scuffle with Chile over treatment of sailors.
• 1893 – Hawaii; January 16 to April 1. Local businessmen revolt against Queen Liliuokalani attempt to impose an absolute monarchy. The overthrow the Queen with no violence and proclaim provisional government; US Marines landed to protect American lives; New government and President Harrison agree to annexation but treaty withdrawn by President Grover Cleveland. The new government declares a Republic of Hawaii.
• 1895 – Venezuela Crisis of 1895 is a dispute with Britain over the boundary of Venezuela and a British colony; it is finally settled by arbitration.
• 1897 – The Olney-Pauncefote Treaty of 1897 is a proposed treaty with Britain in 1897 that required arbitration of major disputes. Despite wide public and elite support, the treaty was rejected by the US Senate, which was jealous of its prerogatives, and never went into effect.
• 1897–98 – American public opinion is outraged by news of Spanish atrocities in Cuba. President McKinley demands reforms.
• 1898 – De Lôme Letter: Spanish minister to Washington writes disparagingly of President McKinley, casting doubt on Spain's promises to reform its role in Cuba
• 1899–1901 – Philippine–American War, commonly known as the "Philippine Insurrection".
• 1899 – Open Door Policy for equal trading rights inside China; accepted by Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and Japan
• 1900 – US forces participate in international rescue in Peking, in Boxer Rebellion

1901 – 1939

• 1901 – Hay–Pauncefote Treaty. American agreement with Great Britain nullifying Clayton–Bulwer Treaty of 1850; guarantee of open passage for any nation through proposed Panama Canal.
• 1901 – Congress passes Platt Amendment, designed to protect Cuba's independence from foreign intervention. It effectively makes Cuba a US protectorate and allowed for American intervention in Cuban affairs in 1906, 1912, 1917, and 1920. It also permitted Washington to lease Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Rising Cuban nationalism and widespread criticism led to its abrogation in 1934 by the Ramón Grau administration.
• 1902 – Drago Doctrine. Foreign Minister Luis María Drago of Argentina announced policy that no European power could use force against any American nation to collect debt, supplanted in 1904 by Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine.
• 1903 – Big Stick diplomacy: Theodore Roosevelt refers to US policy as "speaking softly and carrying a big stick", applied the same year by assisting Panama's independence movement from Colombia. US forces sought to protect American interests and lives during and following the Panamanian revolution over construction of the Isthmian Canal. US Marines were stationed on the isthmus
• 1903 – Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty with Panama; leased strip of land increased to 10 miles wide.
• 1903 – Alaska boundary treaty resolved the Alaska boundary dispute between the United States and Canada in favor of US; Washington and London become more friendly but Canada angry at Britain.
• 1906 – Algeciras Conference. Roosevelt mediated the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany, essentially in French favor.
• 1908–09 – America negotiates arbitration treaties with 25 countries
• 1911 – Reciprocity treaty with Canada fails on surge of Canadian nationalism led by Conservative Party.
• 1911–20 – Mexican Revolution; hundreds of thousands of refugees flee to America; President William Howard Taft recognizes Francisco I. Madero's regime; Madero assassinated by Victoriano Huerta, not recognized by America
• 1912–25 – Nicaragua; America controls Nicaraguan affairs through control of tariff revenues under the Bryan–Chamorro Treaty.
• 1912–41 – China. US forces sent to protect American interests in China during chaotic revolution. In 1927, America had 5,670 troops ashore in China and 44 small naval vessels in its rivers.
• 1913–15 – Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan negotiates 28 treaties that promised arbitration of disputes before war broke out between the signatory countries and the United States. He made several attempts to negotiate a treaty with Germany, but ultimately was never able to succeed. The agreements, known officially as "Treaties for the Advancement of Peace," set up procedures for conciliation rather than for arbitration.
• 1914 – Veracruz Incident a standoff between America and Huerta; Congress authorizes force at president's discretion; ABC Powers try to mediate; America seizes Veracruz; Huerta breaks diplomatic relations; war seems near
• 1915 – British passenger liner torpedoed off Irish coast by German submarine without warning in defiance of international law that requires giving passengers an opportunity to board lifeboats; 1,200 dead include 128 Americans; Theodore Roosevelt demands war with Germany; Woodrow Wilson issues strong protest.
• 1915–34 – Haiti. US forces maintained order and control customs revenue during a period of chronic political instability.
• 1916–24 – Dominican Republic; US naval forces maintained order and control customs revenue during a period of chronic and threatened insurrection.
• 1916 – Pancho Villa raid into New Mexico; the Mexican Punitive Expedition under John J. Pershing chases Villa deep into Mexico; verge of war
• 1917 – Denmark sold the Danish West Indies islands for $25 million to the U.S., which took over the administration on 31 March 1917, renaming the islands the United States Virgin Islands.
• 1917 – Zimmermann Telegram. Germany proposes military alliance between Germany and Mexico against U.S. Publication outrages American opinion; Mexico rejects proposal.
• 1917 – April. America declares war on Germany and later on Austria ; remains independent of Great Britain and France and other Allies.
• 1917 – Lansing–Ishii Agreement. America recognizes Japan's claim to special interests in China, particularly in contiguous territory. Objection to Japan assuming Germany's Asian territories.
• 1917 – November—Britain announces the Balfour Declaration which promises a homeland in Palestine to the Jews; it checked with Washington beforehand, and gained Washington's quiet approval
• 1918 – Fourteen Points. Statement of American war aims by Wilson, served as basis for German armistice.
• 1918–20 – Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War sees US troops sent to Siberia
• 1919 – Versailles Treaty – Wilson one of "The Big Four" negotiators; signed by Wilson but not ratified by Senate.
• 1919 – League of Nations – part of Versailles Treaty; US never joins.
• 1922 – Washington Naval Conference held in Washington, D.C. concluding in the Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty, and Nine-Power Treaty; major naval disarmament
• 1924 – American-led conference results in the Dawes Plan. Eased reparations for Germany and improved its economic situation.
• 1924 – Rogers Act establishes the Foreign Service by merging the low-paid high prestige diplomatic service with the higher paid, middle class consul service. The act provided a merit-based career path, with guaranteed rotations and better pay.
• 1926–33 – Nicaragua; The coup d'état of General Emiliano Chamorro Vargas aroused revolutionary activities leading to the landing of US Marines intermittently until January 3, 1933.
• 1927 – Naval Disarmament Conference in Geneva; failure to reach an agreement.
• 1927 – Clark Memorandum repudiates Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine.
• 1928 – Kellogg–Briand Pact, multilateral treaty outlawing war by moral force of 60 signatory nations.
• 1929 – Young Plan reduces amount of reparations due from Germany to $8.0 billion over 58 years.
• 1930 – Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act raised American tariffs on imports; 1000 economists protest it will worsen depression; retaliation by Canada and others.
• 1931 – Stimson Doctrine declared by Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson; Washington will not recognize Japanese takeover of Manchuria.
• 1932 – Lausanne Conference cancels 90 percent of reparations owed by Germany; the remainder was quietly paid off in October 2010 with a final payment of $94 million.
• 1933 – Montevideo Convention. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares the "Good Neighbor policy", US opposition to armed intervention in inter-American affairs.
• 1933 – London Economic Conference, to deal with Great Depression in the United States, collapses after US withdraws.
• 1933 – US extends diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union in hopes of expanded trade; trade remains minimal.
• 1935 – Neutrality Act of 1935; when war breaks out prohibits all arms shipments ; US citizens can travel on belligerent ships only at their own risk
• 1936 – Neutrality Act of 1936; no loans to belligerents
• 1936 – Spanish Civil War; US neutral; American Catholics support Nationalist forces; left-wing elements support Republican forces
• 1937 – Neutrality Act of 1937; 1935 laws apply to civil wars
• 1937 – Japan invades China, with full-scale war and many atrocities against Chinese; Japan conquers major cities and seacoast; Americans strongly sympathetic to China; Roosevelt does not invoke neutrality laws
• 1938 – Munich Pact sacrifices Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany in the name of appeasement; US not involved but does not object

1939 – 1945

• 1939 – World War II begins, America initially neutral.
• 1940– American intelligence breaks the Japanese diplomatic code with MAGIC.
• 1941 –
• 1942 -:— August 8 Riegner Telegram received in Washington. Gerhart M. Riegner of the World Jewish Congress has received reliable information that Germany is engaged in a campaign of extermination against the Jews of Europe.
• 1943 –
• 1944 – Monetary and Financial Conference held in July in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire; International Monetary Fund and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development created to aid nations devastated by the war and to stabilize the international monetary system.
• 1944 – Dumbarton Oaks Conference held in August in Washington;
• 1945 – February 4–11 Yalta Conference with Joseph Stalin and Churchill; agreement on division of Eastern Europe
• 1945 – Surrender of Germany
• 1945 – July 17 – August 2 Potsdam Conference; President Harry S. Truman meets with Stalin and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee; tells Stalin of atomic bomb; gives Japan last warning to surrender; Germany divided into 4 zones of occupation

1945 – 2000

• 1945 – US eager to help establish United Nations at San Francisco Conference on International Organization.
• 1945 – June 26 – United Nations Charter signed in San Francisco. America becomes a founding member and has veto power on the Security Council along with Great Britain, France, China and the Soviet Union.
• 1945 – August—Nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; surrender of Japan ; beginning of the nuclear age.
• 1945–1947 – Marshall Mission to China tries and fails to force coalition government of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and Mao Zedong's Communists
• 1945–1953 – U.S. provides grants and credits amounting to $5.9 billion to Asian countries, especially China/Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan and the Philippines. In addition, another $282 million went to Israel and $196 million to the rest of the Middle East. All this aid was separate from the Marshall Plan.
• 1946 – In the Blum–Byrnes agreement, the US forgives $2.8 billion in French debts, and gives an additional low-interest loan of $650 million. In turn, France allows American films in its cinemas.
• 1947 – Truman Doctrine gives military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey to halt spread of Communism
• 1947–1989 – Cold War, an era of high tension and hostility—but no major "hot" war—between the US and its allies and the Soviet Union and its satellite states.
• 1947 – General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade includes US and 22 nations who agree to eliminate trade barriers of all kinds on industrial and agricultural goods. Replaced in 1995 by World Trade Organization/
• 1948–1951 – Marshall Plan ; US gives out $13 billion to rebuild and modernize Western European economies. Increased trade between Europe and the America; no repayment asked for.
• 1948
• 1949
• 1950–1953
• 1951
• 1952 – Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats isolationist element in GOP; denounces stalemate in Korea and promises to go there himself; elected president in landslide
• 1953 –
• 1953 – Iran. US and UK governments support shah's coup against Iran's Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh
• 1954

• 1957 – Eisenhower Doctrine gives the president authority to determine the necessity to assist any nation requesting assistance against armed aggression from any country controlled by international communism, applied in Lebanon the following year.
• 1957 – Americans embarrassed when Soviets launch Sputnik, the first space satellite and leapfrog America in high technology.
• 1958 – US foreign aid appropriation, $3.2 billion for military and economic aid; lending authority of the Export-Import Bank raised to $7 billion; US admits 32,000 Hungarian refugees from 1956 revolt
• 1959 – Cuba. Fidel Castro comes to power. The first of 1 million Cuban exiles go to US, concentrating in Miami
• 1960 – Nikita Khrushchev cancels summit conference with Eisenhower after US U-2 spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union
• 1960 – Act of Bogotá makes social reform a prior condition for American economic aid
• 1960 – Cuba seizes $1.5 billion of American properties; America imposes complete trade embargo continues in effect in 2012
• 1961 – President John F. Kennedy launches Space Race, promising Americans on the Moon; they landed July 20, 1969
• 1961 McGeorge Bundy becomes US National Security Advisor.
• 1961 – Cuba. America breaks diplomatic relations as Castro aligns with Soviet Union.
• 1961 – Alliance for Progress. inter-regional agreement funded by America to counter the growing regional appeal of the Cuban Revolution.
• 1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion in April; CIA-trained Cuban exiles invaded Cuba and were defeated at the Bay of Pigs; captured and ransomed by President Kennedy
• 1961 – Berlin Crisis. Soviets give East Germany control over East Berlin; in August the Berlin Wall is built to stem the wave of refugees escaping to the Western side. Kennedy proclaims "Ich bin ein Berliner" to cheering West Berliners.
• 1962 – Organization of American States excludes Cuba, sets up trade embargo; dropped in 1975.
• 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis. John F. Kennedy on October 22 announces that there exist Soviet missiles in Cuba and demanded their removal while imposing an air-sea blockade. Soviet missiles are withdrawn on condition that America will not invade Cuba.
• 1963 – Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. US and the Soviet Union agreed not to conduct nuclear tests in space, in the atmosphere or underwater. Underground tests permitted; signed by 100 nations, excluding France and the People's Republic of China.
• November 1963 – Kennedy Assassinated.
• 1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gives President Lyndon B. Johnson Congressional approval to act in Vietnam; repealed in 1970.
• 1965 – Intervention in Dominican Republic.
• 1967 – In response to the construction of a Soviet anti-ballistic missile system around Moscow the Glassboro Summit Conference is convened.
• 1968 – Tet Offensive in Vietnam causes political crisis at home.
• 1969 – Richard Nixon as president and Henry Kissinger as his National Security Advisor; Kissinger serves as Secretary of State 1973–77.
• 1970
• 1971
• 1972 –
• 1973 –

• 1975 – North Vietnam invades and conquers South Vietnam; over one million refugees eventually come to America.
• 1975 – In response to the Soviet-Cuban sponsored MPLA's successes against the U.S.-sponsored FNLA and UNITA in the Angolan Civil War, the United States urges apartheid-era South Africa to invade Angola to prevent pro-independence militants in South West Africa during the South African Border War from using it as a base.
• 1977–81; Presidency of Jimmy Carter#Africa, especially Andrew Young promotes friendly relations with Black Africa, and pushes back against Southern Rhodesia and especially South Africa.
• 1977 :— June 30 SEATO alliance is dissolved.
• 1978 – Camp David Accords, brokered by President Jimmy Carter, saw Egypt's president Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin come to terms, leading to their historic peace treaty in 1979
• 1979 – The US switches diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China and passes the Taiwan Relations Act.
• 1979–89 – The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan; America works with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in funding, training, and arming Muslim mujahideen insurgency against Soviet occupation.
• 1979-80 – After Afghanistan, President Carter agrees détente has failed; leads worldwide boycott of Moscow 1980 Summer Olympics and withdraws SALT II from Senate consideration.
• 1979–90 – Nicaragua; America supports the Contras fighting against the pro-Communist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
• 1979–81 – Iran becomes an Islamic republic after the overthrow of American-backed Shah; militants seize 63 American diplomats for 444 days during the Iran hostage crisis; America seizes $12 billion in Iranian assets; American rescue effort fails; hostages and assets are freed on January 20, 1981.
• 1980 – Cuba. 125,000 Cuban refugees arrive in America during the Mariel boatlift.
• 1980–88 – Iran–Iraq War. America officially neutral in the war between Iraq and Iran; America flags oil tankers to protect flow of oil in Persian Gulf, and sells arms and weaponry to both sides of the conflict.
• 1981 – President Ronald Reagan escalates Cold War with heavy new military spending and research in new weapons; forward strategy for Navy.
• 1982–
• 1983 –
• 1984
• 1985 – The US suspends its ANZUS obligations to New Zealand after David Lange's Labour government bans nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered warships.
• 1986
• 1987
• 1989 – End of Eastern Bloc; fall of Berlin Wall; all East European satellites break away from Moscow
• 1990 – Panama; America invades to oust Manuel Noriega.
• 1991 – Gulf War; America leads a UN-authorized coalition to repel an Iraqi invasion out of neighboring Kuwait.
• 1991–2003 – Iraq sanctions; America and Great Britain maintain no-fly-zones in the north and south of Iraq with periodic bombings.
• 1991–93 – START II accords held by America and Russia to limit nuclear weapons
• 1991 – The Soviet Union is dissolved; Mikhail Gorbachev resigns
• 1999 – The US and NATO bomb the FR Yugoslavia, which brings an end to the Kosovo War.

21st century

• 2001
• 2003 – US-led coalition invades Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein; troops remain to fight insurgency against the UN-approved elected government.
• 2004 to present – Drone attacks in Pakistan CIA maintains drone surveillance and launches hundreds of attacks on pro-Taliban targets
• 2006 – President George W. Bush signs the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act into law; US no longer opposes India's civilian and military nuclear programs; bilateral relations improve
• 2009–2017 – The Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration downplays Bush's counterinsurgency model against terrorism. Instead it uses a light-footprint approach with expanded air strikes, extensive use of special forces and greater reliance on host-government militaries.
• 2009 – President Obama lifts all travel restrictions to see relatives in Cuba and send remittances. However, later that year, Obama approved continuing the Trading with the Enemy Act, which regulates sanctions on Cuba.
• 2011
• 2013 – US threatens an air attack on Syria after it uses chemical weapons; resolved by agreement to destroy all the chemical weapons under international auspices
• 2014 – US implements economic sanctions against the Russian Federation after its annexation of Crimea.
• 2015 – US reopens its diplomatic mission in Cuba, after over five decades of closure.
• 2017 – 2021 Foreign policy of the Donald Trump administration includes major shifts in foreign policy. It sounds alarm about development by North Korea of nuclear weapons and missiles that can hit North America. It gives high priority to combating terrorism, especially from radical Islam. It prioritizes military action and deemphasizes soft power, political engagement, and diplomacy. It calls for a high wall across the southern border.
• 2017 – US formally recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but does not move embassy yet. UN General Assembly condemns US plan by a vote of 128–9.
• 2018–present – President Trump issues a series of tariffs on goods from countries such as China, India, Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. The trade partners in turn issue retaliatory tariffs. A trade war with China begins.
• 2018 – President Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 2018 Russia–United States Summit in Finland.
• 2019 – U.S. forces kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria.
• 2020
• 2020-2021 - U.S. and NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan, resulting in the re-establishment of the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. This also ended the 19 year long war in Afghanistan.
• 2022–present - The U.S. has provided over $61.4 billion in military assistance to Ukraine following the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine.
• 2023–present - Following the October 7 attacks, the U.S. announced its support for Israel. The U.S. has provided over $17.9 billion in military assistance to Israel. Conflicts over Israeli military operations has caused a strained relationship between Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden. Support for Israel has caused significant debate and uproar, with, for instance, pro-Palestinian protests occurring at university campuses.
• 2024 - The U.S. and Russia exchange twenty-six people in a prisoner exchange at Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Turkey.
• 2025