| 1785 | The arrival of three Chinese seamen in Baltimore marks the first record of Chinese in United States |
| 1790 | Naturalization law limits citizenship to "whites". Chinese are not considered "white". |
| 1807 | Great Britain outlaws the traffic of slaves |
| 1840-1842 | Great Britain and China engage in the Opium Wars. China loses political control of Hong Kong to Great Britain and is forced to open ports to British commerce. |
| 1849 - 1850 | The Gold Rush attracts many people to California, including 325 Chinese people, mostly men. Chinese immigrants begin to establish themselves in the laundry business. |
| 1850 | In United States, statues prohibiting the testimony of Africans and Native Americans in cases involving European Americans are applied to Chinese. |
| 1850 | The first anti-Chinese riot occurs in Tuolumne County, California. |
| 1850s | First large influx of Chinese immigrants to the West Coast; they enter diverse occupations, from agriculture and mining to fishing and manufacturing. |
| 1852 | The mutiny of Chinese workers being shipped to San Francisco aboard the vessel Robert Browne draws attention to the "Coolie trade." A tax is imposed on all foreign miners who do not wish to become citizens. The Chinese, barred by race from citizenship, bear the brunt of this tax. |
| 1854 | Yung Wing receives a B.A. from Yale University, becoming the first Chinese graduate of an American University. |
| 1854 | The People vs. Hall rules that Chinese cannot give testimony in court against whites. |
| 1861-1865 | U.S. Civil War |
| 1862 | California imposes a police tax of $2.50 a month on every Chinese. |
| 1863-1869 | Chinese workers help to build the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad. |
| 1865 | The Central Pacific Railroad's executives pit Irish workers against newly hired Chinese workers to lower the wages they must pay. |
| 1865 | The United States abolishes slavery by pass the 13th amendment. |
| 1867 | Five thousand Chinese railroad workers go on strike for higher wages and shorter workday. |
| 1868 | Burlingame Treaty formalizes the right of Chinese and U.S. citizen to freely migrate and emigrate from one country to the other. |
| 1870 | The federal Civil Rights Act ends the foreign miners' tax, which has yielded $5 million from Chinese miners in California. |
| 1871 | Chinese Massacre in Los Angelos follows Chinese gang fight |
| 1873 | The Chinese emperor orders the Cuban Commission Report to investigate the conditions of Chinese sugar plantation workers in Cuba. |
| 1875 | Chinese farmer Ah Bing grows special cherry later known as the Bing Cherry. |
| 1876-1877 | Irish immigrant Denis Kearney, founder of a labor union called the Workingmen's Party of California, incites resentment of the Chinese with the slogan "The Chinese must go!" Anti-Chinese riots break out across San Francisco. |
| 1878 | First Chinese grocery store, Wo Kee, opens on Mott Street, New York. U.S. Supreme count denies Chinese the right to become American Citizens. |
| 1880 | Italians, Jews, Greeks begin massive immigration to the Lower East Side, NY. |
| 1880-1884 | Chinese workers help to build the Canadian Pacific Railroad. |
| 1882 | Pressured by labor unions, the U.S. Congress enacts Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting Chinese laborers from entering U.S. Chinese become the first nationality to be denied free immigration. |
| 1883 | Lecturer, activist, and journalist Wong Chin Foo begins a weekly bilingual newspaper, the Chinese American. He is an outspoken critic of stereotypes held by Americans of Chinese and Chinese Americans. |
| 1885 | In a massacre in Rock Springs, Wyoming, twenty-eight Chinese are shot dead while Chinese homes and possessions are destroyed. |
| 1886 | Statue of Liberty inaugurated |
| 1888 | The Scott Act prohibits the re-entry of 20,000 Chinese workers who temporarily left the United States for China unless they have relatives in the U.S. or own land worth $1,000. |
| 1889 | A boycott is organized against Chinese workers and their employer. |
| 1890's | Photos San Francisco Chinese community |
| 1890 | 69% of California laundry workers are Chinese. |
| 1892 | The "Fond Yue-Ting v. United State," the Chinese community raises money to test the constitutionality of exclusionary legislation. The Geary Act requires all Chinese to have "certificates of eligibility" to stay in the country. |
| 1898 | Wong Kim Ark v. Supreme Court decision states that a child of Chinese descent born in U.S. is a citizen of the U.S. |
| 1902 | The Exclusion Act is renewed once again. |
| 1905 | Chinese in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and elsewhere stage a one-year boycott of U.S. goods to protest the treatment of Chinese in the Americas. |
| 1906 | The earthquake and fire in San Francisco destroys municipal records, opening the way for the immigration of Chinese "paper sons." Newspaper clippings. Telegrams. Proposed relocation of Chinatown. Disappearance of Chinatown. |
| 1909 | Fung Joe Guey flies the first heavier-than-air machine on the West Coast. |
| 1910 | Angel Island Immigration Station opens in San Francisco Bay as an entry point and detention center for Asian immigrants. |
| 1911 | In China, revolutionary forces led by Sun Yat-Sen overthrow the Manchu government and establish the Republic of China. Foot-binding banned by the new Chinese Republic. |
| 1913 | The California Alien Land Acts prohibit Chinese and Japanese from owning land. Other states pass similar laws. |
| 1915 | The Chinese American Citizens Alliance forms to protect the civil rights of Chinese in the United States. |
| 1920 | American women gain the right to vote. |
| 1922 | The Cable Act decrees that any American woman who marries "an alien ineligible for citizenship shall cease to be a citizen of the United States." |
| 1924 | The United States formally establishes the Asian Exclusion Zone and the 'permanentization' of the 1882 Exclusion Act. |
| 1924 | Immigration Act prohibits Chinese men from bringing wives of children to join them. |
| 1927 | In China, the Kuomintang, led by Chian Kai-shek, splits from the Communist party. |
| 1933 | The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance to organized in New York City in response to discriminatory regulations imposed on the hand laundry industry. |
| 1937 | Sino-Japanese War begins |
| 1940 | The U.S. government closes Angel Island Immigration Station. Personal histories. |
| 1941 | U.S. enters World War II. U.S. allies with China against Japan. Asian Americans voluntarily enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces in large numbers. |
| 1943 | China's support of the Allies in WWII changes public opinion. The Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed and Chinese in the U.S. are given the right to become naturalized citizens. The quota for Chinese immigrants is set at 105 per year. |
| 1945 | War Brides Act allows wives of Chinese American G.I.'s to enter the U.S. |
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