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Mar 1, 1524
Verrazzano, sailing for France discovers New York Harbor.
On this day, April 17th, 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano (also spelled "Verrazano") became the first European to record the discovery of New York Harbor. It should be noted that Norse explorers around 1000 AD may have explored the area, but no accounts are known of such exploration. -
1534
Frenchmen Jacques Cartier navigate the St. Lawrence River names an Island along the River Montreal.
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Jamestown is founded on the coast of Virginia by 100 English settlers.
On May 14, 1607, a group of roughly 100 members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. -
French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, founded the colony of Quebec.
Known as the “Father of New France,” Champlain founded Quebec (1608), one of the oldest cities in what is now Canada, and consolidated French colonies. -
An epidemic of smallpox, brought by Europeans, kills many Native Americans on the New England coast.
In the years before English settlers established the Plymouth colony (1616–1619), most Native Americans living on the southeastern coast of present-day Massachusetts died from a mysterious disease. Classic explanations have included yellow fever, smallpox, and plague. -
Pilgrims from England found an English Colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Plymouth Colony, America's first permanent Puritan settlement, was established by English Separatist Puritans in December 1620. -
Henry Hudson, exploring for the Netherlands, claims land that will become New Netherland.
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The Duke of York drives out the Dutch in New Netherland. The Duke of York claims the colony for England and renamed it New York.
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King Philip's War begins in colonial villages of Massachusetts, between Colonists and Native Americans.
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Sieur de la Salle explores the lower Mississippi Valley river, and claims the Valley for France and names it Louisiana in honor of the French King Louis XIV.
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War between the British and French, known as the French & Indian War. The war is fought over disputed land claims in the Ohio River Valley.
The French and Indian War was the North American conflict that was part of a larger imperial conflict between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years' War. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war's expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American revolution.
