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Oct 12, 1492
Christopher Columbus discovers America
Christopher Columbus was a navigator and an admiral for Castile, a country that later founded modern Spain. He made four voyages to the Americas, with his first in 1492, which resulted in what is considered by European Americans as the Discovery of America or Discovery of the Americas. -
Jun 21, 1497
John Cabots First Voyage
John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer whose 1497 discovery of parts of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is commonly held to have been the first European encounter with the mainland of North America since the Norse Vikings visits to Vinland in the eleventh century. -
May 27, 1513
Ponce de Léon
Ponce de Leon was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named. -
Oct 31, 1517
Protestant Reformation
Martin Luther begins Protestant Reformation -
Feb 9, 1519
Hernan Cortes
Conquered Aztecs in Mexico -
Aug 9, 1519
Alonso de Pineda sails along the texas coast
Alonso de Pineda was a Spanish explorer and cartographer, whose map marks the first document in Texas history. -
Apr 27, 1522
Ferdinand Magellan
Magellan's vessel completes circumnavigation of the world -
Jan 17, 1524
Giovanni da Verrazzano
Verrazzano explores eastern seabord of North America for France. -
Nov 16, 1532
Francisco Pizarro
Pizarro crushes and conquers the Incas. -
Apr 20, 1534
Jacques Cartier's First Voyage
Cartier journeys up the St.Lawrence River. -
May 13, 1539
Hernando de Soto
De Soto explores the Southeast and discovers the Mississppi River. -
Feb 23, 1540
FranciscoVasquez de Coronado
Coronado explores ppresent day southwest. -
Jun 27, 1542
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo
Cabrillo explores California coast for Spain. -
Nov 17, 1558
Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth becomes Queen of England. -
Jun 22, 1565
Fort Caroline
Spanish build fortress at St. Augustine. -
Jun 26, 1565
Irish Uprising
English crush irish uprising. -
Nov 15, 1577
Francis Drake
Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe. -
Sir Walter Raleigh
Raleigh discovers the roanoke colony. -
The Spanish Armada
England defeats the Spanish Armada. -
Sir James
James I becomes king of England -
Treaty of London
Spain and england sign peace treaty. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, her successor James I, quickly sought to end the long and draining conflict. James was an idealistic practitioner of Christian peace and unity, and also the son and successor to Mary, Queen of Scots, whose execution had been a proximate cause of the conflict. -
Jamestown
Jamestown was the first settlement of the Virginia Colony, founded in 1607, and served as capital of Virginia until 1699, when the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg. -
John Rolfe and tobacoo
John Rolfe was known as the father of the tobacco industry , and perfected tobacoo culture in virgina. -
First Anglo Powhatan War Ends
Peace negotiations stalled over return of captured hostages and arms for nearly a year; finally in March 1614, Dale went with Pocahontas and a large force to find Powhatan himself. Getting a shower of arrows at present-day West Point, they went ashore and sacked the town; finding Powhatan at his new capital Matchcot. They finally concluded a peace that was sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas to the colonist John Rolfe. -
African Americans in Jamestown
The First africans arrive in Jamestown -
Pilgrims sail on MayFlower
On this day in 1620, William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgirms landed at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Mayflower transported the first English Pilgrims to America, with 102 passengers. When the Pilgrims disembarked, they founded the Plymouth Colony. -
Virgina Becomes A Royal Colony
In 1624, James I disgusted by the turmoil in Virginia, revoked the company's charter and made Virginia a Royal Colony -
Dutch Found New Netherland
In September, a Dutch group, led by Peter Minuit purchased the 22 square mile Island of Manhattan from the Canarsie Indians. The asking price was 60 guilders and some trinkets, the equivalent of 24 dollars. The Dutch followed the English model of using private investors to help pay for the establishment of a colony. In 1621, the Dutch formed the Dutch-West Indies Company. -
Charles I Dismisses Parliment and Persecutes Puritans
Under Charles I of England, the Puritans became a political force as well as a religious tendency in the country. Opponents of the royal prerogative became allies of Puritan reformers, who saw the Church of England moving in a direction opposite to what they wanted, and objected to increased Roman Catholic influence both at Court and (as they saw it) within the Church. -
Puritans found Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America (Massachusetts Bay) in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions of the U.S. states of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Territory claimed but never administered by the colonial government extended as far west as t -
Maryland Colony Founded
The charter for the colony of Maryland was granted to George Calvert Baron of Baltimore. He died, however, before the colony was settled. His son, Cecil Calvert or more commonly know as Lord Baltimore, saw to it that the colony was settled. -
Connecticut and New Haven colonies Founded
1637 a small party of Puritans reconnoitered the New Haven harbor area and wintered over. In April 1638, the main party of five hundred Puritans who left the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the leadership of the Reverend John Davenport and the London merchant Theophilus Eaton sailed into the harbor. These settlers were hoping to establish a better theological community than the one they left in Massachusetts and sought to take advantage of the excellent port capabilities of the harbor. The Quinni -
Pequot War
The Pequot War was an armed conflict from 1634-1638 between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the English colonists of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Saybrook colonies and their Native American allies. Hundreds were killed; hundreds of prisoners sold into slavery to the West Indies.[ -
The English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political problems between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first (1642–46) and second (1648–49) civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war (1649–51) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. -
New England Conferderation Formed
The United Colonies of New England, consisting of Connecticut, New Haven, Massachusetts, and Plymouth colonies, founded on 19 May 1643. Only "heretical" Rhode Island was excluded from this, the first attempt at major intercolonial cooperation. -
The Second Anglo-Powhatan War
The Second Anglo-Powhatan War began in 1644 as a last effort by the Indians to dislodge the Virginian settlers and a last effort by the settlers to exterminate the Indians -
Charles I Beheaded
Charles the first , adjourned parliament and tried to rule without them, but when he needed to raise taxes for a war with Scotland he had to convene parliament. They passed laws that tried to limited the powers of the monarch. He resisted and a civil war began. He lost the war to the forces of parliament. They had him tried and convicted -
Act of Torleration in Maryland
he Toleration Act of 1649 made it a crime to restrict the religious rights of Christians and was the first law supporting religious tolerance passed in the English colonies. The Toleration Act did not stop all religious conflict, but it helped show that the government some religious freedom and protected the rights of minority religious groups. -
Oliver Cromwell becomes king
Cromwell won the civil war and was elected as the new ruler. -
Charles II restored to English to Throne
Charles II was the son and heir of Charles I of the House of Stuart, who lost the throne (and his head) in 1649, after years of civil war. Cromwell took his place, but died in 1658; his son Richard (1626-1712) succeeded him, but was a lousy leader. Charles II negotiated his way back to the throne and arrived in England on his birthday in 1660. -
Barbados Slave Code Adopted
The Barbados Slave Code was a law passed by the colonial English legislature to provide a legal base for slavery in the Caribbean island of Barbados. -
King Phillips War
The War was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–78. The war is named after the main leader of the Native American side, Metacomet, known to the English as "King Philip".Major Benjamin Church emerged as the Puritan hero of the war; it was his company of Puritan rangers and Native American allies that finally hunted down and killed King Philip on August 12, 1676. -
William Penn founding
founded the Province of Pennsylvania, the British North American colony that became the U.S. state of Pennsylvania -
Glorious Revolution overthrows Stuarts
this was the "revolution" that replaced james ii with william and mary that also recognized the supremacy of the parliament with minimum bloodshed -
Tuscarora War in North Carolina
in 1670, they frequently kidnapped Tuscarora men, women, and children to be sold into slavery; British traders also seized tribal lands without payment. These depredations led to the outbreak of war in 1711, after Tuscarora attempts to obtain relief peacefully were repulsed. Over the following 90 years the Tuscarora moved northward, having been admitted into the Iroquois League as the sixth nation. Many Tuscarora supported the revolutionar -
North Carolina formally separates from South Carolina
The Carolina colony was a large area full of several groups of settlers. The southern portion consisted of large plantations and was heavily dependant on Charleston, while the northern portion was settled by farmers from Virginia. In 1712, the northern half of Carolina was granted its own preparatory governor and named "North Carolina." The King granted the North Carolina colony its own royal governor in 1729. -
The Yamasee War
The Yamasee War was a conflict between British settlers of colonial South Carolina and various Native American Indian tribes, including the Yamasee, Muscogee, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Catawba, Apalachee, Apalachicola, Yuchi, Savannah River Shawnee, Congaree, Waxhaw, Pee Dee, Cape Fear, Cheraw, and others. -
Georgia Colony Founded
Georgia was one of the Southern colonies in British America and was founded my James Ogelthrope. It was the last of the thirteen original colonies established by Great Britain in what later became the United States. In the original grant, a narrow strip of the province extended to the Mississippi River. -
Works Cited
"Spanish Exploration and Colonization." Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Student Resources In Context. Web. 27 May 2013.
"Dutch Exploration and Colonization." Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Student Resources In Context. Web. 27 May 2013.
Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant: A History of the Republic. 12th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company 50-
