The following timeline appears in Canal Mania in Indiana, an issue of The Indiana Historian. Indiana events are in green and the "Other Events in History" are in black.
The full citations are available in the issue bibliography.
1787
U.S. Congress establishes Northwest Territory. (Barnhart and Riker, 266-71).
1789
Fort Washington established on Ohio River; adjoining village later named Cincinnati. (Garman, 133)
1800
Indiana Territory established. (Barnhart and Riker, 311-12)
1800
Construction completed on "first true canal" in U.S. connecting Santee and Cooper rivers in South Carolina. (Carruth, 71)
1802
Lawrenceburg platted. (Garman, 133)
1803
Ohio becomes seventeenth state. (Carruth, 74)
1805
Michigan Territory established. (Barnhart and Riker, 337)
1805
Indiana territorial legislature charters Indiana Canal Company to build a canal around the Falls of the Ohio; Indiana General Assembly charters Ohio Canal Company in 1817; canal started but not finished. (Buley, 1:435-36)
1806
U.S. Congress provides for road from Cumberland, Maryland to Ohio; becomes known as Cumberland or National Road. (Buley, 1:446-48)
1807
Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont makes first voyage from New York to Albany. (Carruth, 80)
1808
Brookville platted. (Barnhart and Riker, 420)
1812
War of 1812 begins; ends in 1815. (Carruth, 86, 90-91)
1815
Enterprise is first steamboat to go to New Orleans and return upriver to its home port north of Pittsburgh. (Taylor, 63)
1816
First steamboat on Great Lakes, on Lake Ontario. (Taylor, 61)
1816
Indiana becomes nineteenth state. (Carruth, 92)
1817
Théophile René Laënnec of France invents the stethoscope (Hellemans and Bunch, 265).
1817
New York begins construction of Erie Canal. (Carruth, 94)
1818
Illinois becomes twenty-first state. (Carruth, 95)
1820
Stage line begins from Vincennes to Louisville. (Esarey, 1:296)
1825
Canal construction begins on Kentucky side at Falls of the Ohio, killing canal project on Indiana side; completed 1831; New York's Erie Canal opens; Stockton and Darlington, world's first railroad for general transportation, begins in England. (Fatout, 20-21; Carruth, 103; Taylor, 75-76)
1826
Indiana General Assembly incorporates Whitewater Canal Company. (Laws, 1825-1826, pp. 29-36)
1827
U.S. Congress grants Indiana lands for building Wabash and Erie Canal; route of National Road in Indiana surveyed. (Fatout, 39; Esarey, 1:291)
1828
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad chartered. (Taylor, 77)
1828
Indiana General Assembly accepts land from Congress and elects canal commissioners. (Fatout, 41)
1829
Welland Canal, New York, connecting Lake Erie with Lake Ontario, opens. (Taylor, 61)
1831
Stage coach service from Brookville to Cincinnati begins. (Esarey, 1:297)
1832
Construction begins on the Wabash and Erie Canal. (Taylor, 47)
1832
Miami and Erie Canal completed from Cincinnati to Dayton. (Taylor, 46)
1833
Ohio and Erie Canal completed from Cleveland to Ohio River. (Taylor, 46)
1834
Indiana General Assembly orders survey for Whitewater Canal; engineers report December 23, 1834 calls for canal from Nettle Creek to Lawrenceburg. (Esarey, 1:410)
1835
Indiana General Assembly requests Ohio to construct part of Whitewater Canal in Ohio; Ohio gives permission in 1836 law. (Laws, 1834-1835, pp. 272-73)
1836
Indiana's ambitious Internal Improvement Act approved by Governor Noah Noble; construction on Whitewater Canal begins. (Laws, 1835-1836, pp. 6-21; Esarey, 1:418)
1837
Michigan becomes twenty-sixth state. (Carruth, 118)
1839
Canal completed between Brookville and Lawrenceburg; state orders work stopped on most internal improvement projects. (Esarey, 1:418-19; Fatout, 98)
1842
White Water Valley Canal Company resumes work on canal. (Fatout, 108-9)
1843
Whitewater Canal completed to Laurel. (Fatout, 109)
1845
Miami and Erie Canal from Cincinnati to Toledo completed. (Taylor, 46)
1845
Whitewater Canal completed to Connersville in June and to Cambridge City in October. (Fatout, 117)
1846
U.S. declares war on Mexico; war ends in 1848. (Carruth, 132, 135)
1847
Floods cause $100,000 damage to Whitewater Canal and repairs from flood in 1848 are $80,000; Hagerstown Canal Company completes Whitewater Canal from Cambridge City to Hagerstown; Madison and Indianapolis Railroad completed. (Esarey, 1:426; Garman, 133; Taylor, 91)
1848
Wisconsin becomes thirtieth state. (Carruth, 135)
1850
International cholera epidemic reaches Midwest. (Carruth, 140)
1851
Indiana's new Constitution adopted. (Esarey, 1:520-21)
1853
Wabash and Erie Canal completed to Evansville. (Taylor, 48)
1859
Central Canal sold for $2,425. (Esarey, 1:426)
1861
U.S. Civil War begins; war ends in 1865. (Carruth, 157, 166)
1865
White Water Valley Canal Company property sold to president of Indianapolis and Cincinnati Railroad; towpath later becomes roadbed for White Water Railroad Company. (Fatout, 155-156)
1872
Yellowstone National Park Reserve established. (Carruth, 179)
1876
Wabash and Erie Canal sold for $96,260 to repay bondholders. (Esarey, 1:445)