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Verrazzano sails to France. Instead he finds New York Harbor.
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Frenchman Jacques Cartier navigates the St. Lawrence River and names an Island Along the River Montreal.
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Jamestown is founded on the coast of Virginia by 100 English settlers.
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Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer, founds the colony of Quebec.
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Henry Hudson, exploring for the Netherlands, claims a land that will become New Netherland.
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The Europeans bring an epidemic of smallpox that kills many native Americans on the New England coast.
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Pilgrims from England found an English colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
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The Duke of York drives out the Dutch in New Netherland. The Duke claims the colony for England and renames it New York.
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King Phillip's War, between colonists and Native Americans, begins in colonial villages of Massachusetts.
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Sieur de la Salle, a french explorer, explores the lower Mississippi Valley river, and claims the valley for France. He names it Louisiana in honor of the French King Louis XIV.
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The French and Indian War, between the British and the French, is fought over disputed land claims in the Ohio Valley.
