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Period: 5000 BCE to 1 BCE
Ancient Times
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Period: 1 CE to 1299
Middle Ages
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1100
Vikings reach North America
Nearly 500 years before the birth of Christopher Columbus, a band of European sailors left their homeland behind in search of a new world. Their high-prowed Viking ship sliced through the cobalt waters of the Atlantic Ocean as winds billowed the boat’s enormous single sail. After traversing unfamiliar waters, the Norsemen aboard the wooden ship spied a new land, dropped anchor and went ashore. -
Period: 1300 to
Renaissance
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1456
Gutenberg Printing Press invented
Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession, developed, circa 1439, a printing system by adapting existing technologies to printing purposes, as well as making inventions of his own. -
1492
Columbus reaches America
Columbus didn't “discover” America — he never set foot in North America. During four separate trips that started with the one in 1492, Columbus landed on various Caribbean islands that are now the Bahamas as well as the island later called Hispaniola. He also explored the Central and South American coasts. -
1499
Amerigo Vespucci reaches America
Amerigo Vespucci; March 9, 1454 – February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator, and cartographer. Around 1502, Vespucci demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies were not Asia's eastern outskirts (as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages) but a separate, unexplored land mass colloquially known as the New World. It came to be called "the Americas", a name derived from Americus (the Latin version of Vespucci's first name). -
1500
Pedro Alvares Cabral reaches America
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil. In 1500 Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. -
1513
Juan Ponce de Leon arrives in America
Juan Ponce de León, commonly known as Ponce de León, was a Spanish explorer and conquistador known for leading the first official European expedition to Florida and the first governor of Puerto Rico. He was born in Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain in 1474. -
1513
Vasco Nunez de Balboa reaches America
Vasco Núñez de Balboa was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World. -
1519
Cortes lands in Mexico
Aztec Empire. In 1518, Cortés was to command his own expedition to Mexico, but Velázquez canceled it. Cortés ignored the order, setting sail for Mexico with more than 500 men and 11 ships that year. In February 1519, the expedition reached the Mexican coast. -
1519
Ferdinand Magellan crosses the Pacific
In search of fame and fortune, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480-1521) set out from Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands. En route he discovered what is now known as the Strait of Magellan and became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean. -
1539
Hernando de Soto's expedition
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula, and played an important role in Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, but is best known for leading the first Spanish and European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States (through Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and most likely Arkansas). He is the first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River. -
1562
Jean Ribaut starts French colony
Jean Ribault was a French naval officer, navigator, and a colonizer of the southeastern United States. He was a major figure in the French attempts to colonize Florida. Ribault led an expedition to the New World in 1562 that founded the outpost of Charlesfort on Parris Island in South Carolina. Two years later, he took over command of the French colony of Fort Caroline in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. He and many of his followers were massacred by Spanish soldiers near St. Augustine. -
Roanoke colony founded
The Roanoke Colony, also known as the Lost Colony, was the first attempt at founding a permanent English settlement in North America. It was established in 1585 on Roanoke Island in what is today's Dare County, North Carolina. The colony was sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh, although he himself never set foot in it. -
Period: to
Early Modern
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London Company sailed for Jamestown
The London Company (also called the Virginia Company of London) was an English joint-stock company established in 1606 by royal charter by King James I with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America. -
Pocahontas marries John Rolfe
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The House of Burgess is formed in Virginia
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Pilgim's sail to Cape Cod on the Mayflower
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Massacre of Jamestown Colony
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Roger Williams founds Rhode Island
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French and Indian War begins
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Sons of Liberty band together against taxation without representation
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Stamp Act introduces tax on printed paper
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Stamp Act repealed
The Stamp Act repealed after many protests. however, this is not the end of taxing the colony's... -
Townshend Acts introduce taxes on tea and other goods
The Townshend Acts introduces taxes on tea and other goods. This would lead to many more riots in the future... -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a event where 5 Americans were killed. this would later be used for propaganda, and start getting France and Spain on the colonists side. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a event where colonists dressed as native Americans dropped a lot of tea overboard. this would later cause the intolerable acts, and soon after a revolution. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts
These battles would contribute to the eventual deceleration of independence from the united kingdom. -
Declaration of Independence
this is when america would officially become independent from the united kingdom. after this, it became more than a rebellion. it became a war. -
New U.S Constitution becomes law
The new constitution of the united states is signed into law. -
George Washington is elected first president of the U.S
George Washington was elected first president of the united states after winning the american revolution. -
James Madison writes first 10 amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights
James Madison writes first 10 amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. It was quite controversial at the time, but it ended being the right decision in the long run. -
Period: to
Modern
