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1492
Columbus' four voyages
a Spanish-based transatlantic maritime expedition led by Christopher Columbus encountered the Americas, continents which were largely unknown in Europe and outside the Old World political and economic system. The four voyages of Columbus began the Spanish colonization of the Americas. -
1521
Cortes conquers the Aztecs
led by Hernando Cortes, was a landmark victory for the European settlers. Following the Spanish arrival in Mexico, a huge battle erupted between the army of Cortes and the Aztec people under the rule of Montezuma. -
Roanoke Island colnoy
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. -
Jamestown, Virginia founded
Company of England made a daring proposition: sail to the new, mysterious land, which they called Virginia in honor of Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, and begin a settlement. They established Jamestown, Virginia, on May 14, 1607, the first permanent British settlement in North America. -
First Africans arrive in Virginia
Virginia's first Africans arrived at Point Comfort, on the James River , late in August 1619. There, "20. and odd Negroes" from the English ship White Lion were sold in exchange for food and some were transported to Jamestown, where they were sold again, likely into slavery -
Virginia House of Burgesses formed
was the first democratically-elected legislative body in British North America. This group of representatives met from 1619 until 1776. ... The House of Burgesses is important because the ideas and leaders from this House Helped bring about the American Revolutionary War. -
Pilgrims found Plymouth, MA
America's first permanent Puritan settlement, was established by English Separatist Puritans in December 1620. The Pilgrims left England to seek religious freedom, or simply to find a better life. ... By legend the Pilgrims stepped ashore at Plymouth Rock; their records do not mention this landmark. -
Puritan migration to Massachusetts
usually refers to the migration in this period of English Puritans to Massachusetts and the West Indies, especially Barbados. They came in family groups rather than as isolated individuals and were motivated chiefly by a quest for freedom to practice their Puritan religion. -
Calverts found Maryland
1st Baron Baltimore, also called (1617–25) Sir George Calvert, (born 1578/79, Kipling, Yorkshire, Eng.—died April 15, 1632), English statesman who projected the founding of the North American province of Maryland, in an effort to find a sanctuary for practicing Roman Catholics. -
Pequot Indian War, Maryland
was an armed conflict that took place between 1636 and 1638 in New England between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narragansett and Mohegan Tribes. The war concluded with the decisive defeat of the Pequots. . -
Anne Hutchinson convicted of heresy
Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Three years after arriving in Boston, she found herself the first female defendant in a Massachusetts court. When she held prayer meetings attended by both men and women, the authorities were alarmed. -
Fundamental Order of Connecticut
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was an early colonial constitution that established a rule of law that governed the towns of Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford, beginning in 1639 -
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers") over, principally, the manner of England's governance. -
First Navigation Act
The Navigation Acts, or more broadly The Acts of Trade and Navigation were a long series of English laws that developed, promoted and regulated English ships, shipping, trade, and commerce between other countries and with its own colonies. The laws also regulated England's fisheries and restricted foreigners' participation in its colonial trade. -
English conquer New Netherlands
Holland did not lose New Netherland through force. Nieuw Amsterdam was New York from 1664 to 1673, but in that year it became Dutch once more, this time under the name Nieuw Oranje, `New Orange.' That was in honor of the Dutch Prince of Orange, who a few years later was destined to become King William of England. -
King Philip's War
King Philip's war was fought between the English colonists of New England and a group of Native American tribes. The main leader of the Native Americans was Metacomet, chief of the Wampanoag peoples. -
Massachusetts becomes a royal colony
Plymouth (1620, annexed by Massachusetts in 1691), Massachusetts Bay (1630), Connecticut (1635), and Rhode Island (1636) were all established according to religious charters; Massachusetts Bay became a royal colony under its second charter in 1691, in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution. -
Salem witch hunts
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused, nineteen of whom were found guilty and executed by hanging (fourteen women and five men). One other man was pressed to death for refusing to plead, and at least five people died in jail. It was the deadliest witch hunt in the history of the United States. -
Queen Anne's War
Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) was the North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession, as known in the British colonies, and the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought between France and England in North America for control of the continent. The War of the Spanish Succession was primarily fought in Europe. -
England, Wales. and Scotland unite into the UK
The formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has involved personal and political union across Great Britain and the wider British Isles. The United Kingdom is the most recent of a number of sovereign states that have been established in Great Britain at different periods in history, in different combinations and under a variety of polities. Norman Davies has counted sixteen different states over the past 2,000 years. -
George I‘s reign
George I (George Louis; German: Georg Ludwig; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698 until his death. -
George II's reign
George II (George Augustus; German: Georg II. August; 30 October / 9 November 1683 – 25 October 1760) was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 (O.S.) until his death in 1760. -
Georgia founded
The nation of Georgia was first unified as a kingdom under the Bagrationi dynasty by the King Bagrat III of Georgia in the 8th to 9th century, arising from a number of predecessor states of the ancient kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia. The Kingdom of Georgia flourished during the 10th to 12th centuries under King David IV the Builder and Queen Tamar the Great -
First Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its Thirteen Colonies between the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affected Protestantism as adherents strove to renew individual piety and religious devotion. -
John Peter Zenger trial
was a German American printer and journalist in New York City. Zenger printed The New York Weekly Journal.[1] He was accused of libel in 1734 by William Cosby, the royal governor of New York, but the jury acquitted Zenger, who became a symbol for freedom of the press. -
Stono Rebellion,NC
The Stono Rebellion (sometimes called Cato's Conspiracy or Cato's Rebellion) was a slave rebellion that began on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina. It was the largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies, with 25 white people and 35 to 50 black people killed. -
King Grorge's War
is the name given to the military operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in the British provinces of New York, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia. -
Albany Congress
The Albany Congress (also known as "The Conference of Albany") was a meeting of representatives sent by the legislatures of seven of the thirteen British colonies in British America: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.