1876- First rules of Football are written

1892- General Electric Founded.

1895- First pro player, John Brailler, accepts 10 dollars from YMCA to cover his expenses 

1898- Spanish American War starts.

1899- Morgan Athletic Club is formed by Chris O' Brien in Chicago. The team has changed its location and name over the years but still plays in Arizona under the name the Cardinals. It is the oldest franchise in the NFL.

1903- Great Train Robbery released.

1903- First World Series of Baseball.

1903- General Motors founded.

1906- Forward pass is legalized.

1917- U.S. enters World War One

1918- World War One ends with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles 

1920- American Professional Football Association (APFA) is founded with 14 teams. Many of the losers disbanded at seasons end.

1920- Volstead Act passed banning Alcohol throughout the country

1921- League expands to 22 teams including the Green Bay Packers.

1921- Fritz Pollard first African American head coach

1922- The APFA changes its name to the National Football League (NFL). George Halas changes the name of the Decatur Stanleys to the Chicago Bears.

1925- Red Grange signs contract with Chicago Bears. His crowd pleasing play style brought in a record 75 000 people to watch the Bears play the Los Angeles Tigers. The new popularity saved the finically strapped league from bankruptcy.

1926- National Broadcasting Company (NBC) founded

1927- Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) founded

1927- Charles Lindbergh completes first trans atlantic flight

1929- Great Depression begins

1939- First televised game is played between Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Eagles.

1940- Chicago Bears defeat the Washington Redskins 73-0 in the NFL Championship, the largest defeat in league history.

1941- Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. U.S. enters World War Two.

1945- Germany surrenders ending World War Two in Europe. Japan surrenders months later after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

1949- North American Treaty Organization founded.

1950- Korean War begins

1955- Rosa Parks refuses to leave her seat and begins the Montgomery Bus Boycott

1956- CBS becomes first network to broadcast games

1959- Lamar Hunt announces the formation of a second league called the American Football League (AFL)

1960- Pete Rozelle elected Commissioner of the NFL

1962- Cuban Missile Crisis 

1963- President John F. Kennedy is assassinated

1964- Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed outlawing major forms of racial discrimination 

1965- President Lyndon B. Johnson increases U.S. involvement in Vietnam

1965- Survey shows that American sport fans prefer Football (41%) over Baseball (38%).

1966- The AFL and the NFL have meetings to discuss a merger. It is decided that in 1970 the two leagues would consolidate and in the interim the league champions would play against each other in the AFL-NFL World Championship. Rozelle would become the commissioner of the new league.