100 Milestone Documents

The following is a list of 100 milestone documents, compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration, and drawn primarily from its nationwide holdings. The documents chronicle United States history from 1776 to 1965.

Why Were these 100 Documents Chosen?

Complete List of Documents

Please note that you can always use the thumbnail images at the top of every page to navigate directly to any of the 100 Milestone Documents.

• Lee Resolution (1776)
• Declaration of Independence (1776)
• Articles of Confederation (1777)
• Treaty of Alliance with France (1778)
• Original Design of the Great Seal of the United States (1782)
• Treaty of Paris (1783)
• Virginia Plan (1787)
• Northwest Ordinance (1787)
• Constitution of the United States (1787)
• Federalist Papers, No. 10 & No. 51 (1787-1788)
• President George Washington's First Inaugural Speech (1789)
• Federal Judiciary Act (1789)
• Bill of Rights (1791)
• Patent for Cotton Gin (1794)
• President George Washington's Farewell Address (1796)
• Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)
• Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress Regarding the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1803)
• Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803)
• Marbury v. Madison (1803)
• Treaty of Ghent (1814)
• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
• Missouri Compromise (1820)
• Monroe Doctrine (1823)
• Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
• President Andrew Jackson's Message to Congress 'On Indian Removal' (1830)
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)
• Compromise of 1850 (1850)
• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
• Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
• Telegram Announcing the Surrender of Fort Sumter (1861)
• Homestead Act (1862)
• Pacific Railway Act (1862)
• Morrill Act (1862)
• Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
• War Department General Order 143: Creation of the U.S. Colored Troops (1863)
• Gettysburg Address (1863)
• Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
• President Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (1865)
• Articles of Agreement Relating to the Surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia (1865)
• 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865)
• Check for the Purchase of Alaska (1868)
• Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
• 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868)
• 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights (1870)
• Act Establishing Yellowstone National Park (1872)
• Thomas Edison's Patent Application for the Light Bulb (1880)
• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
• Pendleton Act (1883)
• Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
• Dawes Act (1887)
• Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• De Lôme Letter (1898)
• Joint Resolution to Provide for Annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States (1898)
• Platt Amendment (1903)
• Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1905)
• 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Federal Income Tax (1913)
• 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Direct Election of U.S. Senators (1913)
• Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 (1916)
• Zimmermann Telegram (1917)
• Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Germany (1917)
• President Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points (1918)
• 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920)
• Boulder Canyon Project Act (1928)
• Tennessee Valley Authority Act (1933)
• National Industrial Recovery Act (1933)
• National Labor Relations Act (1935)
• Social Security Act (1935)
• President Franklin Roosevelt's Radio Address unveiling the second half of the New Deal (1936)
• President Franklin Roosevelt's Annual Message (Four Freedoms) to Congress (1941)
• Lend-Lease Act (1941)
• Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry (1941)
• Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Japan (1941)
• Executive Order 9066: Resulting in the Relocation of Japanese (1942)
• General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Order of the Day (1944)
• Servicemen's Readjustment Act (1944)
• Manhattan Project Notebook (1945)
• Surrender of Germany (1945)
• United Nations Charter (1945)
• Surrender of Japan (1945)
• Truman Doctrine (1947)
• Marshall Plan (1948)
• Press Release Announcing U.S. Recognition of Israel (1948)
• Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948)
• Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State (1953)
• Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1954)
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (1956)
• Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School (1957)
• President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address (1961)
• President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address (1961)
• Executive Order 10924: Establishment of the Peace Corps. (1961)
• Transcript of John Glenn's Official Communication with the Command Center (1962)
• Aerial Photograph of Missiles in Cuba (1962)
• Test Ban Treaty (1963)
• Official Program for the March on Washington (1963)
• Civil Rights Act (1964)
• Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964)
• Social Security Act Amendments (1965)
• Voting Rights Act (1965)