American Religion Timelines
Prominent Religious Events and People - Events by Name
| Event | Introduction | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Abington School District v. Schempp | In 1963, the Supreme Court ruled that required Bible readings and recitation of the Lord's Prayer in the public schools was unconstitutional. | |
| African Methodist Episcopal Church | In 1816, the African Methodist Episcopal Church formed after years of unequal treatment with white Methodists. It is the oldest existing African-American denomination in the U.S. | |
| Al Smith Presidential Campaign | Alfred E. "Al" Smith became the first Catholic nominee for president when he ran as a Democrat in 1928 against Herbert Hoover. | |
| Allegheny County v. ACLU | This 1989 case dealt with religious holiday symbols on government property and found that a combination of religious symbols does not violate the Establishment Clause. | |
| Assemblies of God Founded | The Assemblies of God started with a handful of Pentecostal ministers in Hot Springs, Arkansas in April 1914, but would grow into a global phenomenon. | |
| Billy Graham's Los Angeles Crusade | Billy Graham's Los Angeles Crusade (1949) catapulted the southern evangelist into the national spotlight for the first time. | |
| Cane Ridge Camp Meeting | Barton Stone organized the Cane Ridge camp meeting (1801), the largest and most famous religious revival of the Second Great Awakening. | |
| Catholic Church Abuse Scandal | The Catholic Church has recently been the subject of a widespread scandal involving Catholic officials accused of sexual abuse and cover-ups. | |
| Charles Finney's Rochester Revival | Charles Finney's Rochester Revival (1830-1831) played a foundational role for the more widespread revivalism and conversions of the 1830s and 1840s. | |
| Church of God (Cleveland, TN) | The Church of God (Cleveland, TN) was founded in 1886 and is the oldest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. | |
| Church of God in Christ | The Church of God in Christ was formed in 1897 in Mississippi. It is the oldest and largest black Pentecostal body in the United States. | |
| City of Boerne v. Flores | In this 1997 case, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress had overstepped its constitutional powers in enacting the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. | |
| Death of Joseph Smith | An angry mob broke into Joseph Smith's jail cell and killed him on June 27, 1844. Smith became a martyr at the age of 38. | |
| Dennis Bennett's Charismatic Outpouring | In 1960, Dennis Bennett's public announcement of his baptism by the Holy Spirit led to the Second Wave of Charismatic Christianity in America. | |
| Election of Jimmy Carter | In 1976, Jimmy Carter was the first self-proclaimed "born again" Christian elected president of the United States. | |
| Election of John F. Kennedy | John F. Kennedy became the first Catholic President of the United States when he defeated Richard Nixon in the 1960 election. | |
| Employment Division v. Smith | This 1990 case determined that citizens could not be exempt from generally applicable and religiously neutral laws because those laws burdened their exercise of religion. | |
| Everson v. Board of Education | In this 1947 case, the Supreme Court first applied the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (i.e. no law establishing religion) to the states. | |
| First Buddhist Temples Built | In the 1850s-1880s, Chinese and Japanese immigrants brought Buddhism to America as they searched for work in Hawaii's plantations and California's gold rush. | |
| First Convent of Nuns in America | The first Catholic convent in America was founded in 1790 in Maryland by four contemplative Discalced Carmelite Nuns who came from a convent in Belgium. | |
| First LDS Temple (Kirtland) | Joseph Smith founded the first Latter-day Saints temple in Kirtland, Ohio, on March 27, 1836. | |
| First Purpose-Built Mosque | In 1929, Syrian-Lebanese immigrants constructed the first purpose-built mosque in America in Ross, N.D., to serve their small community of Muslims. | |
| First Salvation Army Meeting in America | The Salvation Army conducted its first formal meeting in the United States in New York City in 1880. | |
| George Whitefield's First American Preaching Tour | George Whitefield's preaching tour (1739-1740) helped propel his career as the preeminent revivalist of the First Great Awakening. | |
| Hindu Temple Established in San Francisco | On Jan. 7, 1906, Indian-born Swami Trigunatita helped build one of the first Hindu temples of the western world in San Francisco. | |
| Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 | The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (i.e., Hart-Celler Act) permitted more Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu immigrants into the United States, changing the U.S. religious landscape. | |
| Jerry Falwell Helps Found the Moral Majority | With the help of Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell in 1979, the founding of the Moral Majority would later influence Ronald Reagan's election in 1980. | |
| Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration | The Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of 1965 revoked the mutual excommunications of 1054 that led to the Great Schism. | |
| Jonathan Edwards Preaches 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' | Jonathan Edwards's sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741) was one of the foundational texts of the First Great Awakening. | |
| Lemon v. Kurtzman | This 1971 ruling established an influential precedent (the "Lemon test") for whether a law violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. | |
| Lynch v. Donnelly | This case interpreted the Establishment Clause as an accommodation between church and state, not an absolute separation of the two. | |
| Marjorie Matthews Elected Bishop | Marjorie Matthews was elected bishop in the United Methodist church in 1980. She was the first female elected bishop of any mainline Christian church. | |
| Massachusetts Bay Colony | In 1630, a group of Puritans, led by John Winthrop, established the Massachusetts Bay Colony after fleeing religious persecution in England. | |
| Methodist Episcopal Church, South | In 1845, the contentious issue of American slavery divided the Methodist Episcopal Church into Northern and Southern denominations. | |
| Million Man March | The Million Man March in 1995, organized by the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan, was the largest gathering of African Americans in U.S. history. | |
| Mitt Romney's Presidential Campaign | Mitt Romney became the first Mormon nominee for president when he ran as a Republican in 2012 against Barack Obama. | |
| Nat Turner's Rebellion | Nat Turner’s rebellion (1831) is the most famous slave revolt in American history. | |
| Nation of Islam Founded | On July 4, 1930, W.D. Fard founded the Nation of Islam, one of the most radical and militant religious movements of the 20th century. | |
| National Association of Evangelicals Founded | The National Association of Evangelicals was founded in 1942 to provide representation for evangelicals in Washington, D.C., and with the broadcasting industry. | |
| Plymouth Plantation | Plymouth Plantation was a North American colony settled in 1620 by English Separatists, later known as Pilgrims, who desired to practice their own religion freely. | |
| Publication of Encyclical Rerum Novarum | Rerum Novarum, an 1891 encyclical by Pope Leo XIII on protecting the working class, is a foundational text in modern Catholic social thought. | |
| Publication of Scofield Reference Bible | The Scofield Reference Bible, first published by Oxford University Press in 1909, would sell two million copies by the end of World War II. | |
| Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 | The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 allowed the "compelling state interest" test to apply to federal level, not just the state level. | |
| Rhode Island Royal Charter | In 1663, the Rhode Island Royal Charter made a unified government in the colony possible, acknowledged American Indian land rights, and declared religious toleration. | |
| Roger Williams Founds Providence, Rhode Island | In 1636, Roger Williams founded Rhode Island, which became known for its religious tolerance and deregulation of religious behavior. | |
| Salem Witch Trials | During the Salem Witch Trials (1692-1693), citizens accused one another of witchcraft, leading to mass hysteria and the imprisonment/death of approximately 170 community members. | |
| Scopes Trial | The Scopes Trial (1925) highlighted the tension between literal interpretations of creation accounts in the Bible and evolutionary theory in the 20th century. | |
| Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) | The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was a Catholic ecumenical council that attempted to reconcile Catholicism with the challenges of modernity. | |
| Sherbert v. Verner | This 1963 case introduced the "Sherbert test"; the government must show that burdening the individual's practice of religion is based on a compelling state interest. | |
| Siege of Branch Davidian Compound | Most remember the Branch Davidians, a sect of Seventh-day Adventism, the US Government laying siege to their compound outside of Waco, Texas in 1993. | |
| Sojourners Magazine | Sojourners magazine, founded in 1971, promoted a greater prominence of liberal Christian views on social issues within the evangelical community. | |
| Southern Baptist Convention Founded | The Southern Baptist Convention (1845) resulted from a split between Northern and Southern Baptists over slavery. It is now the largest Protestant denomination in America. | |
| Southern Christian Leadership Conference | Founded in 1957, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) believed that racial equality was a Christian imperative and utilized non-violent protests to combat racism. | |
| The First Great Awakening | The First Great Awakening (1730s-1770s) was a series of religious revivals that propelled the expansion of evangelical denominations in the colonies. | |
| The Second Great Awakening | The Second Great Awakening(s) (1790s-1840s) fueled the rise of an evangelical Protestant majority in antebellum America, giving rise to new denominations and social reform organizations. | |
| Theosophical Society Founded | Founded in New York in 1875, the Theosophical Society popularized such Eastern tenets as karma and reincarnation in a new religious movement emphasizing spiritual evolution. | |
| Thomas Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists | In 1802, Thomas Jefferson's letter contained the phrase "a wall of separation between Church and State," important in later legal interpretations of the first amendment. | |
| Touro Synagogue | Touro Synagogue was dedicated in 1763 in Newport, R.I. It is the oldest dedicated synagogue in America. | |
| Utah | In 1847, Brigham Young led the Mormons into Utah after facing persecution at home. The land was considered a Mormon "Zion." | |
| Virginia's Religious Disestablishment | In 1786, the Virginia legislature passed a bill by Thomas Jefferson ending the Anglican Church's formal establishment as the state religion. | |
| William Seymour and Azusa Street Revival | The Azusa Street Revival (1906-1915) was a defining event for early Pentecostalism and functioned as the catalyst to the growth of American Pentecostalism. | |
| World Parliament of Religions | In 1893, the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago introduced many non-Christian faiths to America -- including Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Jainism, Shinto and Taoism. |
