Beginnings to 1607

Flooding of Bering Strait Land Bridge

8000 BCE

The Bering Strait Land Bridge was a natural bridge that connected the separated continents of Asia and North America. It was about 1,000 miles North to South at its largest. As the last Glacial ends the sea levels rise and Bering Strait Land Bridge also floods.

Kennewick Man

7560 BCE

Between the years 7560 BCE and 7370 BCE the Kennewick Man dies alongside the Columbia River in Washington. His bones are the oldest found fully intact.

Mesoamerica

5000 BCE

Early cultivation of food crops in Mesoamerica. Some staple food crops included maize, beans, squash, and chile.

Vinland

1000

Leif Ericsson lands in Newfoundland and calls it Vinland. For a couple hundred years afterward the Vikings briefly settle in that region which also includes New England.

Cliff Palace Built

1200

Cliff Palace was built and had around 100 residents while used in the 1200s.

Cliff Palace Abandoned

1300

Cliff Palace was abandoned.

Saint Augustine

1565

Saint Augustine becomes first permeant settlement in America by the Spanish. Is in present-day Florida.

Roanoke Island

Jun 4, 1585

Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the colony of Roanoke Island in North Carolina. This was also where the first English child, Virginia Dare, was born in America.

Roanoke Island Disappearance

1590

Five years after the establishment of the colony, the Governor, John White, returns to the colony from England. He finds that the 100+ settlers have completely vanished. Among the settlers who disappeared were Governor John White's daughter and granddaughter, who was Virginia Dare. With no sign of struggle and the word "Croatoan" carved into a post, what happened to the settlers still remains a mystery.

Jamestown

1607

The first permeant English settlement in Virginia.