Asian-Pacific Heritage Month 2008

Leadership, Diversity, Harmony: Gateway to Success

Timeline of Historical Events  Page 1 of 5

1600s Spanish bring Chinese and Filipinos to Mexico.
1763 Filipinos desert a Spanish ship in New Orleans, and establish first Filipino community in St. Malo in a Louisiana bayou.
1830s Chinese laborers brought to work in Hawaiian sugar cane fields.
Chinese peddlers recorded in New York City.
1843 The first Japanese immigrants arrive in the United States on
May 7, 1843.
1844 U.S. and China sign first treaty.
1848 California Gold Rush attracts Chinese prospectors.
1852 First group of 195 Chinese contract laborers land in Hawaii.
Over 20,000 Chinese enter California.
1854 Chinese in Hawaii begin to organize.
In The People v. Hall, California Supreme Court rules that a Chinese man could not give testimony in court since Chinese were "inferior, and…incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point…"
Yung Wing graduates from Yale University, becomes first Chinese
person to graduate from a U.S. college.
Commodore Perry signs first commercial treaty with Japan since 1638.
1860 The first Japanese Embassy is dispatched to the U.S.

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Chinese immigrants waiting to board ships to the U.S. Chinese immigrants
waiting to board ships to
the U.S. in search of better
economic opportunities.
Courtesy of California
Historical Society.
first Chinese embassy pose with their American counterparts
The first Japanese embassy to the United States. They are pictured at
the Washington, DC shipyard. Public domain image; source: wikipedia.org
Yung Wing, first Chinese person to graduate from a U.S. college.
Yung Wing, the first Chinese person to graduate from a U.S. college. Class Autograph Book 1854 photo courtesy of Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University Library.