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Jan 1, 1000
Vikings Land in North America
Leif Erikson first landed in Vinland in 1000 AD. He and the Norse Vikings explored that area about 500 years before Christopher Columbus's voyage. -
Sep 28, 1066
William of Normandy Conquers England
William's defeat of King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings marked the beginning of a new era in British history. -
Jun 15, 1215
The Magna Carta
The Magna Carta was a charter promising protection of church rights, protection for barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the crown. -
Oct 12, 1492
Christopher Columbus Discovers America
Columbus led his three ships - the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria - out of Palos on August 3. His goal was to sail until he reached Asia, where he hoed to find gold, pearls, and spices. -
Aug 24, 1497
John Cabot Explores North America
In the summer of 1497, Cabot crossed the Atlantic and discovered North America. He was a citizen of Venice. -
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era. -
Jamestown, VA
Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was considered the capital of Virginia for 83 years. -
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the first legislative assembly of elected representatives is North America. -
Pilgrims Come on the Mayflower
The pilgrims came two America on the Mayflower, the voyage taking over two months. -
Puritan Migration
The Puritans did not break with the Church of England, but instead sought to reform it. -
Nathaniel Bacon’s Rebellion
The immediate cause of the rebellion was Governor William Berkeley's recent refusal to retaliate for a series of Native American attacks on frontier settlements. In addition, many colonists wished to push westward to claim Indian frontier land, but they were denied permission by Gov. Berkeley. -
The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening was an evangelical and revitalization movement that swept Protestant Europe and British America, and especially the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact on American Protestantism. -
The Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe. -
French and Indian War
The war pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, with both sides supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and France, as well as by Native American allies. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III. The proclamation forbade all settlement past a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was an act of the British Parliament in 1756 that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents. -
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of acts passed — beginning in 1767 — by the Parliament of Great Britain relating to the British colonies in North America. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was an incident in which British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest against the British Tea Act. Several colonists dressed as Indians and destroyed tea from the East India Tea Company. -
First Continental Congress
A meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies. -
Salutary Neglect
Salutary neglect is an American history term that refers to the unofficial, long-term seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British Crown policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws meant to keep American colonies obedient to England. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that, soon after warfare, declared the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration was adopted by the second Continental Congress meeting, announcing that the thirteen colonies regarded themselves as newly independent states, and were no longer under British rule. -
Treaty of Paris 1783
The Treaty of Paris was a treaty signed by King George III and America ending the Revolutionary War.
