| •1848 | Gold discovered in California |
| •1851 | First Treaty of Fort Laramie |
| •1862 | Homestead Act |
| •1864 | Sand Creek massacre |
| •1865–1868 | Lakota Sioux lead Indian resistance |
| •Late 1860s | Large-scale cattle drives begin |
| •1868 | Second Treaty of Fort Laramie |
| •1869 | Transcontinental railroad completed |
| •1870s | Gold discovered in Black Hills of North Dakota |
| •1876 | Battle of the Little Big Horn |
| •1877 | Desert Land Act |
| Timber and Stone Act |
| •1881 | Helen Hunt Jackson publishes A Century of Dishonor |
| •1882 | Edmunds Act |
| Chinese Exclusion Act |
| •1884 | Annie Oakley joins William Cody's Wild West show |
| •1885–1887 | Cattle industry collapses |
| •1886 | Geronimo captured |
| •1887 | Dawes Act |
| Kansas women win right to vote in municipal elections |
| •1889–1890 | Mexican American White Caps attack Anglo property |
| •1890 | Massacre at Wounded Knee |
| •1893 | Western Federation of Miners formed |