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Period |
Literature |
Music |
Film |
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Pre-1600 |
1542:
The Relation of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
1552:
Bartolomeo de las Casas,The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation
of the Indies |
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1600s |
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1610s |
1616:
John Smith, A Description of New England |
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1620s |
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1630s |
1630:
John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity |
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1640s |
1640:
The Bay Psalm Book is the first book printed in the American
colonies |
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1650s |
1650:
Anne Bradstreet, Tenth Muse |
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1660s |
1662:
Michael Wigglesworth, Day of Doom |
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1670s |
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1680s |
1682:
Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson |
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1690s |
1692:
Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World |
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1700s |
1700:
Samuel Sewall, Selling of Joseph
1702:
Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana |
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1710s |
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1720s |
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1730s |
1732:
Benjamin Franklin begins Poor Richard's Almanac |
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1740s |
1741:
Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God |
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1750s |
1758:
Benjamin Franklin, "The Way to Wealth" |
A British physician composes Yankee
Doodle (1753) |
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1760s |
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1768:
"The Liberty Song" |
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1770s |
1773:
Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects
1776:
Thomas Paine, Common Sense |
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1780s |
1782:
J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer
1787:
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia
1787-8:
Federalist Papers
1789:
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano |
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1790s |
1790:
Judith Sargent Murray, "On the Equality of the Sexes"
1791:
Susannah Rowson, Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth
1798:
Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland |
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1800s |
1805:
Mercy Otis Warren, Rise, Progress and Termination of the American
Revolution
1807:
Salamagundi founded
Joel Barlow, Columbiad |
1807:
Thomas More publishes Irish Melodies |
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1810s |
1819:
Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" |
1814:
Francis Scott Key, Star-Spangled Banner |
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1820s |
1821:
James Fenimore Cooper, The Spy
1823:
Clement Clarke Moore, "A Visit from St. Nicholas"
1826:
James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans |
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1830s |
1830:
Godey's Lady's Book founded
1831:
Liberator founded
1832:
Autobiography of Black Hawk
1836:
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
1837:
Emerson, American Scholar
1838:
Emerson, Divinity School Address |
1830:
A black-faced minstrel, Thomas Dartmouth Rice, introduces the
song "Jump Jim Crow"
1832:
America (My Country Tis of Thee) |
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1840s |
1840:
Dial founded
1845:
Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven
Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century
Henry David Thoreau begins living at Walden Pond
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
1849:
Thoreau, "Resistance to Civil Government" |
1840:
Adolphe Sax of Belgium, invents the saxophone
1848:
Stephen Foster composes "Oh, Susannah" |
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1850s |
1850:
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter
1851:
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
Hawthorne, House of the Seven Gables
1852:
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
1853:
William Wells Brown, Clotel; or, The President's Daughter
1854:
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
1855:
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
1857:
Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Weekly founded
1859:
Harriet E. Wilson, Our Nig: or, Sketches in the Life of a Free
Black
Martin Delany, Blake or The Huts of America |
1853:
Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home"
1859:
John
Brown's Body
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1860s |
1861:
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Longfellow, "Paul Revere's Ride"
1863:
Abraham Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address"
1865:
Mark Twain, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
1866:
Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker; or, The Silver Skates
1868:
Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Bret Harte, "The Luck of Roaring Camp"
Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick
1869:
Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad |
1861:
Julia Ward Howe composes The Battle Hymn of the Republic
1863:
Union bandmaster Patrick Gilmore writes When Johnny Comes Marching
Home
1865:
Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer"
Henry Clay Works' "Marching Through Georgia"
1867:
"Slave Songs of the United States," a collection of
plantation songs and spirituals, is published. |
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1870s |
1873:
Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age
1876:
Twain, Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1879:
Henry James, Daisy Miller |
1871:
The Fisk Jubilee Singers begin their first tour
1876:
Player piano invented
1877:
Thomas Edison makes his first recording of a human voice ("Mary
had a little lamb") on a tinfoil cylinder phonograph
1927
reenactment
1878:
Earliest
playable recording: voices for an experimental talking clock |
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1880s |
1881:
Henry James, Washington Square; The Portrait of a Lady
Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus
Helen Hunt Jackson, Century of Dishonor
1882:
Mark Twain, The Prince and the Pauper
1884:
Jackson, Ramona
Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1885:
William Dean Howells, Rise of Silas Lapham
1888:
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward
1889:
Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
1880:
My Darling Clementine
1887:
Emile Berliner, the inventor of the microphone, patents a gramophone
that plays discs rather than waxed cylinders, and a system for
making copies of a disc from a master |
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1890s |
1890:
Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives
1891:
Hamlin Garland,Main-Travelled Roads
1892:
Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus and His Friends
1893:
Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
McClure's Magazine founded
1895:
Stephen Crane,The Red Badge of Courage
Simon
Pokagon, An Indian on the Problems of His Race
1897:
Henry James, What Daisy Knew
1898:
Henry James, Turn of the Screw
1899:
Charles Chesnutt, The Conjure Woman |
1892:
Charles K. Harris composes, "After
the Ball," which will eventually sell 5 million copies
in sheet music
1893:
First use of the word Ragtime appears in the song title Ma Ragtime
Baby by Fred Stone
1896:
Theodore M. Metz's A Hot Time in the Old Town
1898:
John Philip
Sousa, Stars and Stripes Forever
"The Charge
of Roosevelt's Rough Riders" (Columbia Orchestra)
1899:
Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag
Joseph E. Howard's "Hello! Ma Baby" |
1894:
Edison,
Fred Ott's Sneeze |
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1900s |
1900:
Zitkala-Sa, Impressions of an Indian Childhood
Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous Age
1901:
Charles W. Chesnutt, Marrow of Tradition
Frank Norris, The Octopus
1902:
Ida Tarbell, History of the Standard Oil Company
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities
Henry James, The Wings of the Dove
Owen Wister, The Virginian
1903:
W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk
1904:
Henry James, The Golden Bowl
1905:
Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth
1906:
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
David Graham Phillips, The Treason of the Senate
1907:
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams |
1900:
J. Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson compose the "Negro
national anthem," "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing."
1902:
George Evans's "In the Good Old Summertime"
1904:
George
M. Cohan, Give My Regards to Broadway
"In the Shade
of the Old Apple Tree" (Columbia Quartette)
1905:
"My Gal Sal"
(Criterion Quartet)
1906:
Jelly
Roll Morton, King Porter Stomp
1907:
"Glow-worm"
(Victor Orchestra)
1908:
"Take Me
Out to the Ball Game" (Edward Meeker)
Shine On, Harvest
Moon
Columbia introduces the two-sided record.
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1903:
The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter) |
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1910s |
Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull
House ((1910)
Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome (1911)
Masses (1911-1918)
Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage (1912)
James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
(1912)
Mary Antin, The Promised Land (1912)
Poetry magazine founded (1912)
World War I
1915:
T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
(1915)
1917:
Hamlin Garland, A Son of the Middle Border
Abraham Cahan, The Rise of David Levinsky
1919:
Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio |
1911: Irving
Berlin publishes his first major hit, Alexander's Ragtime Band
1912: Waiting
for the Robert E. Lee
World War I
1914:
W.C.
Handy, St. Louis Blues
"It's
a Long, Long Way to Tipperary" (American Quartet)
1917:
George
M. Cohan, Over There
"Keep the
Home Fires Burning" (John McCormack)
"Till We Meet
Again" (Charles Hart and Lewis James)
"Livery
Stable Blues" by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band is
the first jazz recording
Storyville red light district closes in New Orleans
1918:
Irving Berlin, God Bless America and
Oh, How I Hate to
Get Up in the Morning (Arthur Fields)
King Oliver moves to Chicago
1919:
"How
Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm" (Arthur Fields) |
1915:
Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith)
1916:
Intolerance (D.W. Griffith)
World War I
1917:
Poor Little Rich Girl and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (Mary Pickford)
1919:
Broken
Blossoms (D. W. Griffith) |
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1920s |
1921:
James Joyce, Ulysses
1922:
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt
1925:
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby
Alain Locke, New Negro
Theodore Dreiser, American Tragedy
1926:
Ernest Hemingway, Sun Also Rises
1927:
Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
1929:
William Faulkner, Sound and the Fury |
1920:
Mamie Smith's Crazy Blues is the first blues recording
Swanee (Al Jolson),
A
Good Man is Hard to Find
You're
the Cream in My Coffee
Charleston
1921:
"Ain't
We Got Fun?" (Benson Orchestra)
1922:
Chicago
(That Toddlin' Town)
1923:
First Cotton Club Revue
1924:
"California,
Here I Come!" (Al Jolson)
George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue
1925:
"Yes,
Sir! That's My Baby!" (Carlton Coon and Joe Sanders)
1927:
Hoagy
Carmichael, Stardust
Kern
and Hammerstein, Showboat
"On
the Sunny Side of the Street"
"Button
Up Your Overcoat" (Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians)
Lindbergh
(The Eagle of the U.S.A.)
"Mammy"
(Al Jolson)
1928:
"I
Want to Be Loved by You" (Helen Kane)
1929:
"Happy
Days are Here Again" (Leo Reisman and His Orchestra)
"Singin'
in the Rain" ( Gus Arnheim and His Orchestra) |
1920:
The Mark of Zorro (Douglas Fairbanks)
Way Down East (D.W. Griffith)
Pollyanna (Mary Pickford)
1921:
The Kid (Chaplin)
Orphans of the Storm (D. W. Griffith)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (Mary Pickford)
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and The Sheik (Rudolph Valentino)
1922:
Robin Hood (Douglas Fairbanks) (1922)
1924:
Thief of Bagdad (Douglas Fairbanks)
Perfect Flapper (Coleen Moore)
1925:
Gold Rush (Chaplin)
Greed
Phantom of the Opera (Lon Chaney)
1927:
General (Buster Keaton)
Jazz Singer (Al Jolson)
It (Clara Bow) |
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1930s |
1931:
Pearl Buck, Good Earth
1933:
Erskine Caldwell, God's Little Acre
Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
1934:
James Hilton, Goodbye, Mr. Chips
F. Scott, Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night
Dashiell Hammett, Thin Man
James M. Cain, Postman Always Rings Twice
1935:
Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty
John O'Hara, Butterfield 8
Horace McCoy, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
1936:
Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
1938:
Orson Welles, War of the Worlds
1939:
Grapes of Wrath
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1930:
George
Gershwin, I Got Rhythm
1931:
Herman
Hupfeld, As Time Goes By
"The Star Spangled Banner" officially becomes the
national anthem
1932:
"Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" by Rudy Vallee
"Night and Day" by Fred Astaire
"All of Me" by Louis Armstrong
Blues pianist Thomas A. Dorsey, "the father of gospel music,"
writes "Take My Hand Precious Lord"
1933:
"Stormy Weather," by Ethel Waters
"Sophisticated Lady," by Duke Ellington
1934:
"I Get a Kick Out of You"
"Blue Moon"
Cole
Porter, Night and Day
1935:
George
and Ira Gershwin, Porgy and Bess
Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek"
"I'm in the Mood for Love"
1936:
"Pennies from Heaven"
"Glory of Love"
1937:
Robert
Johnson, Hellhound on My Heels
Rogers
and Hart, My Funny Valentine
1938:
Billy
Strayhorn, Take the A Train
Berlin's God Bless America (Kate Smith)
1939:
Gene
Autry, Back in the Saddle Again
Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit
Glenn
Miller, In the Mood
Contralto Marian
Anderson gives a concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,
after the Daughters of the American Revolution refuse to allow
her to use Constitution Hall |
1931:
M
City Lights
Frankenstein
Monkey Business
Dracula
Public Enemy
1932:
Scarface
Horse Feathers
I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Mummy
A Farewell to Arms
1933:
She Done Him Wrong
King Kong
Three Little Pigs
42nd Street
Gold Diggers of 1933
1934:
It Happened One Night
1935:
Alice Adams
Bride of Frankenstein
Night at the Opera
Mutiny on the Bounty
Infomer
39 Steps
1936:
Modern Times
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1937:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1939:
Wizard of Oz
Gone with the Wind
Boys Town
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1940s |
1941:
James Agee, Walker Evans, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
1944:
Tennessee Williams, Glass Menagerie
1946:
Benjamin Spock, Commonsense Book of Baby and Child Care |
1940:
Woody
Guthrie, This Land is Your Land
World War II
1942:
Irving
Berlin, White Christmas
1943:
Oklahoma!
Postwar
1946:
Bill
Monroe, Blue Moon of Kentucky
1947:
Columbia introduces the 33-rpm long-playing record with a 23-minute
capacity per side
1948:
RCA introduces the 45-rpm record
1949:
Hank
Williams, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
Todd Storz of Omaha, Nebraska's KOWH created Top 40 format |
1940:
Pinnochio
Fantasia
1941:
Citizen Kane
Sergeant York
1942:
Bambi
1943:
Girl Crazy
1944:
Meet Me in St. Louis
1946:
Best Years of Our Lives
1948:
Easter Parade
1949:
In the Good Old Summertime |
|
1950s |
1953:
Arthur Miller, The Crucible
1957:
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
James Agee, Death in the Family |
1950:
The
Weavers, Goodnight Irene
1952:
Guy
Carawan and Candy Carawan, We Shall Overcome
Alan Freed starts Moondog's Rock and Roll Party in Cleveland
1953:
Elvis Presley makes his first recording at Sun Studio in
Memphis
1954:
Bill
Haley, Rock Around the Clock
Chuck Berry, Maybelline
Fats Domino, Ain't that a Shame
1956:
Carl
Perkins, Blue Suede Shoes
The
Platters, Great Pretender
Elvis
Presley, Hound Dog and Don't Be Cruel
1957:
Buddy
Holly, Peggy Sue
Jerry
Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire
1958:
Kingston
Trio, Tom Dooley
Richie
Valens, La Bamba
Barry Gordy, Jr. founds Motown records |
1950:
Cinderella
Annie Get Your Gun
1951:
An American in Paris
1952:
Greatest Show on Earth
1953:
Peter Pan
1954:
Rear Window
Caine Mutiny
On the Waterfront
Star is Born
1955:
Lady and the Tramp
Mr. Roberts
Rebel Without a Cause
1956:
Ten Commandments
Around the World in 80 Days
And God Created Woman
1957:
Bridge On The River Kwai
Peyton Place Jailhouse Rock
I Was A Teenage Werewolf
1958:
Vertigo
Touch of Evil
1959:
Ben-Hur
Sleeping Beauty
Some Like It Hot |
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1960s |
|
1962:
Bob Dylan, Blowin' in the Wind
1964:
The Beatles' first American tour
1965:
James
Brown, Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
Bob
Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone
Barry McGuire, Eve of Destruction
Country Joe and the Fish, I Feel Like I'm Fixin's to Die Rag
asks "What are we fightin' for?
1966:
Sgt. Barry Sadler, Ballad of the Green Berets
Jimi
Hendrix, Purple Haze
1967:
Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaurant
The
Doors, Light My Fire
Aretha Franklin, Respect
1968:
Tammy
Wynette, Stand By Your Man
1969:
Isaac
Hayes, Theme from "Shaft" |
1960:
Swiss Family Robinson
Psycho
La Dolce Vita
Alamo
1961:
101 Dalmations
West Side Story
1962:
Dr. No
Lawrence of Arabia
To Kill a Mockingbird
1963:
Cleopatra
From Russia With Love
1964:
Mary Poppins
My Fair Lady
Goldfinger
1965:
Sound of Music
Dr. Zhivago
1966:
Wild Angels
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
1967:
Jungle Book
Graduate
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
I Am Curious, Yellow
1968:
Funny Girl
2001
Planet of the Apes
1969:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Alice's Restaurant |
|
1970s |
|
1970:
Edwin Starr's War asks "what is it good for?"
1971:
Marvin Gaye, What's Going On
1973:
Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon"
|
1970:
Love Story
Airport
MASH
Woodstock
1971:
Carnal Knowledge
1972:
Godfather
Cabaret
Lady Sings the Blues
1973:
Exorcist
Sting
American Graffiti
1974:
Blazing Saddles
Young Frankenstein
Towering Inferno
1975:
Jaws
Rocky Horror Picture Show
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976:
Rocky
1977:
Star Wars
Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind
Saturday Night Fever
1978:
Grease
Animal House
Superman
1979:
Kramer v. Kramer
Amityville Horror
Apocalypse Now |
|
1980s |
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1980:
Empire Strikes Back
Superman II
9 to 5
1981:
Raiders of the Lost Ark
On Golden Pond
Porky's
1982:
E.T.
Tootsie
Officer and a Gentleman
1983:
Return of the Jedi Terms of Endearment Flashdance Trading Places
WarGames
1984:
Ghostbusters Beverly Hills Cop Indiana Jones And The Temple Of
Doom
Gremlins
Karate Kid
Police Academy
1985:
Back to the Future
Rambo
Rocky IV
Color Purple
1986:
Top Gun
Crocodile Dundee
Platoon
1987:
Three Men and a Baby
Fatal Attraction
Beverly Hills Cop II
Good Morning, Vietnam
1988:
Rain Man
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Coming to America
Big
1989:
Batman
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Lethel Weapon II |
|
1990s |
|
1990:
Lee Greenwood, God Bless the U.S.A. |
1990:
Home Alone
Ghost
Dances With Wolves
Pretty Woman
1991:
Terminator 2
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Beauty and the Beast
Silence of the Lambs
City Slickers
1992:
Alladin
Home Alone 2
Batman Returns
Wayne's World
1993:
Jurrasic Park
Mrs. Doubtfire
1994:
Forrest Gump
Lion King
True Lies
1995:
Toy Story
Batman Forever
Apollo 13
Pocahontas
1996:
Independence Day
Twister
Mission Impossible
1997:
Titanic
Men in Black
1998:
Saving Private Ryan
Armageddon
There's Something About Mary
1999:
Phantom Menace
Sixth Sense |
|
2000s |
|
|
2000:
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Castaway
Gladiator
2001:
Harry Potter
Shrek
Monsters, Inc.
Lord of the Rings
2002:
Spider-Man
Attack of the Clones
Two Towers
Harry Potter |
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