| 30,000-20,000 BCE | Native Americans cross Bering Strait from Asia to North America |
| 1000 AD | Lief Erikson, Norse sailor, explores North America including Vinland (Newfoundland). |
| 1450 | Gutenberg perfects moveable type. |
| 1492 | Spanish Reconquista - Spain unified under rule of Ferdinand and Isabella. Jews and Moors expelled from Spain. |
| 1492 | Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, explores Caribbean including San Salvador (Bahamas), Hispanola (Santa Domingo) and Cuba. |
| 1497 | John Cabot, sailing for Britain, explores North America. |
| 1498 | Amerigo Vespucci, sailing for Spain, explores South American coast. |
| 1507 | New World referred to as "America" by German mapmaker who erroneously credits explorer Amerigo Vespucci with the discovery of the continent. |
| 1513 | Juan Ponce de Leon, sailing for Spain, explores Florida. |
| 1518 | Hernan Cortes of Spain defeats Aztec emperor Montezuma in Mexico. |
| 1524 | Giovanni de Verrazano sailing for France explores New York Harbor, the Hudson River and Nova Scotia. |
| 1534 | Jacques Cartier, sailing for France explores the coast of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island (Canada). He will later explore the St. Lawrence River as far as Quebec and Montreal. |
| 1539 | Hernando de Soto of Spain explores what is today the Southeast United States. |
| 1540 | Francisco Vasquez de Coronado of Spain explores what is today the Southwest United States. |
| 1565 | St. Augustine (Florida) founded by Spanish settlers. This constitutes the first permanent European settlement in North America. |
| 1585 | Sir Walter Raleigh organizes the colonization of Roanoke Island, Virginia (today, North Carolina) by the British. The colony lasts for one year. Another attempt to settle the colony in 1587 also fails when the colony disappears without a trace sometime before 1590. |
| 1588 | English Navy defeats Spanish Armada. |
| 1590 | Richard Hakluyt publishes an anthology of notable voyages to the New World which includes accounts by English explorers and settlers including Francis Drake, Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh. A second edition is published 1598 and piques English interest in the exploration and colonization of the New World. |
| 1607 | Jamestown colony founded under a patent of the London Company. |
| 1608 | French explorer Samuel Champlain founds Quebec, the first permanent French settlement in North America. |
| 1612 | Tobacco introduced in Virginia colony by John Rolfe. |
| 1613 | Dutch colonists form settlements in New Amsterdam (later New York City) and by the 1620s, elsewhere in a colony called New Netherlands (New York). |
| 1619 | House of Burgesses, an elective legislative assembly, created in Virginia colony. |
| 1619 | First black slaves arrive in Virginia. |
| 1620 | Pilgrims arrive in Plymouth (Massachusetts) and sign Mayflower Compact. Plymouth is absorbed by their larger, Puritan neighbor Massachusetts Bay in 1691. |
| 1628 | Massachusetts Bay Colony first settled by Puritans. John Winthrop arrives two years later and becomes their leader. |
| 1629 | King Charles I dissolves Parliament and rules without it until 1640. |
| 1634 | Lord Baltimore founds Maryland which is settled mainly by English Roman Catholics. Initially, some religious freedom is permitted. |
| 1635 | Roger Williams, exiled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for advocating separation between church and state and for questioning the validity of the Massachusetts Bay charter. In 1636 he founds Providence (Rhode Island) and establishes a policy of religious tolerance there. The colony is recognized and granted a charter by England in 1644. |
| 1636 | Puritan clergyman Thomas Hooker and others leave Massachusetts and found Hartford (later the colony of Connecticut). |
| 1636 | Harvard College founded. |
| 1638 | Anne Hutchinson is tried and ex-communicated. She leaves Massachusetts and goes to Rhode Island where she founds the town of Portsmouth. |
| 1638 | Sweden establishes a colony, New Sweden in what is present day Delaware. The colony is dominated by Swedish and Dutch settlers. |
| 1639 | Puritan settlers found New Hampshire led by John Wheelwright. |
| 1642 | Civil War breaks out in England between supporters of King Charles and Parliamentarians and Puritans. |
| 1647 | Massachusetts law requires that all sizable towns institute some form of public education. |
| 1649 | King Charles I (a Stuart) is executed in England. Puritan Oliver Cromwell creates a Commonwealth in place of the monarchy. |
| 1651 | First Navigation Act passed by Parliament. No colonial goods may be imported to England in non-English ships. |
| 1660 | The Royal House of Stuart returns to the throne in England when Charles II assumes the throne, ending the Interregnum. |
| 1660 | Navigation Act of 1660 requires only English built vessels with crews that are at least three- quarters English may trade in the American colonies. Certain enumerated goods of colonial origin ? including indigo, sugar and tobacco - may only be shipped to England or to other English colonies. |
| 1663 | Charles II creates the colony of Carolina (later North and South Carolina). The proprietors of the colony (led by Anthony Ashley Cooper) establish a feudal society there. |
| 1663 | Navigation Act requires that all imports to the American colonies from other European countries must be transported from England on English ships. |
| 1664 | Sir George Carteret and John, Lord Berkeley found New Jersey. |
| 1664 | After a naval blockade and without a shot being fired, Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrenders New Netherlands to English forces. The English rename the colony New York in honor of the Duke of York. The Dutch are permitted to stay and are granted religious freedom. |
| 1664 | The Maryland Colony passes a law that mandates the life long servitude of black slaves. New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Virginia will later pass such laws. |
| 1667 | The Virginia House of Burgesses passes a law stating that the conversion of blacks to Christianity does not bring about their release from servitude. This law encourages planters to convert more slaves to Christianity. |
| 1673 | French explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet "discover" the interior of North America including the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. In 1682 French explorer LaSalle reaches the mouth of the Mississippi and claims the surrounding territory, which he names Louisiana for Louis XIV of France. |
| 1676 | Nathaniel Bacon leads a group of frontiersmen from Western Virginia in a rebellion against Virginia Governor William Berkeley which results in Baconís burning of Jamestown. Bacon and fellow rebels also crush the Susquehannock Indians who have been attacking the settlers of Western Virginia. The rebellion disintegrate when Bacon dies suddenly in October 1676. |
| 1680 | New Hampshire, long a territory of Massachusetts, becomes an independent colony. |
| 1681 | William Penn, a Quaker, receives a charter from King Charles II making him proprietor of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was characterized by a government which permitted religious tolerance and which sought friendly relations with local Indian tribes. Many settlers of Pennsylvania are Quakers. |
| 1686 | King James II creates the Dominion of New England and names Edmund Andros its governor. The Dominion includes all of the colonies north of Pennsylvania and deprives the colonies of their independent status and dissolves their colonial legislatures. |
| 1688 | King James II is deposed in what is known as the Glorious Revolution. James II's fervent Catholicism and disregard for traditional civil liberties and absolutist acts alienated many and led to the Revolution. American colonists have similar objections to James II. |
| 1689 | William and Mary of Orange become King and Queen of England. Parliament passes a Bill of Rights protecting the liberties of Englishmen. |
| 1689 | Edmund Andros is jailed and the Dominion of New England dissolves in the colonial response to the Glorious Revolution. New England colonies, one by one reestablish their representative assemblies. |
| 1690 | King Williamís War begins in the colonies. American colonists fight French and Indians. |
| 1692 | Hysteria over the presence of alleged witches in Salem, Massachusetts leads to the execution of 20 individuals - 14 of them women. |
| 1696 | Navigation Act of 1696 limits all colonial trade to English built ships. |
| 1697 | Treaty of Ryswick between England and France ends King Williamís War. |
| 1699 | Wool Act (a Navigation Act) forbids the export of wool from the American colonies in an effort to protect Britainís wool industry. |
| 1700 | Colonial population is about 275,000; Boston is the largest city with 7000 inhabitants. |
| 1702 | Queen Anneís War (the War of Spanish Succession) begins. In America, English and colonists fight French, Spanish and Indians. |
| 1703 | Delaware breaks away from Pennsylvania and forms a separate government. The region had originally been settled by Swedes and called New Sweden. |
| 1713 | Treaty of Utrecht ends Queen Anne's War. |
| 1717 | Scots-Irish immigration becomes prevalent. Most settle in Western Pennsylvania. Significant numbers of Germans (known as Pennsylvania Dutch) also begin to settle in Pennsylvania at about this time. Non-English settlement is already common in New York State. |
| 1732 | Georgia colony founded by James Oglethorpe and his partners. Oglethorpe sees the colony as a haven for those in debtors' prisons. |
| 1732 | Benjamin Franklin begins publication of "Poor Richard's Almanac", a compilation of weather predictions, proverbs and epigrams. |
| 1733 | Molasses Act - places high duties on all sugar, rum and molasses from non-British islands in the Caribbean. It is designed to protect British planters in the West Indies. |
| 1734 | Jonathan Edwards, Congregationalist clergyman preaches a series of sermons in Northampton Massachusetts that initiate the Great Awakening. Over the next ten years a religious revival, led by Edwards and George Whitefield, sweeps the country. |
| 1740 | King Georgeís War (the War of Austrian Succession) begins in Europe. The American phase largely occurs between 1743-1748. |
| 1745 | During King George's War, American forces capture the French fort of Louisbourg at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. |
| 1748 | Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle concludes King George's War ? Louisbourg is returned to the French. |
| 1750 | Iron Act passed by Parliament - bans the construction of iron mills and steel furnaces in the American colonies. This is designed to protect the British iron industry. |
| 1754 | The French and Indian War (the Seven Years War) begins. |
| 1754 | Albany Congress - at an intercolonial meeting, Benjamin Franklin presents his Albany Plan to unify the English colonies in America. The plan is later rejected by individual colonial assemblies and by the British government. |
| 1760 | George III becomes King of England. |
| 1760 | The population of the 13 colonies is approximately 1.6 million. |
| 1763 | Treaty of Paris concludes the French and Indian War - France gives England all her territory in North America including Canada and all lands east of the Mississippi River. France holds on to a few islands in the Caribbean and to the port city of New Orleans. |
| 1763 | Proclamation of 1763 issued by King George forbids American settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. |
| 1764 | Sugar Act passed by Parliament as a means of raising revenue from the American colonists. An accompanying act provides a means of more effective enforcement of existing acts. |
| 1764 | Committee of correspondence formed by Massachusetts House of Representatives to communicate common grievances with other colonies. |
| 1765 | Stamp Act - a direct tax on all printed material in the American colonies. Colonists protest act through mob action, boycotts of British goods, the Stamp Act Congress, etc. Many colonists refuse to pay the tax. |
| 1765 | Quartering Act - requires colonies to house British troops in the American colonies. |
| 1765 | Stamp Act Congress meets and protests taxation without representation and other British measures as violations of the colonistsí rights as British citizens. |
| 1766 | Stamp Act repealed by Parliament on same day that it passes the Declaratory Act. |
| 1766 | Declaratory Act - declares Parliamentary supremacy over American colonies "in all cases whatsoever." |
| 1767 | Townshend Acts - place duties on colonial importation of glass, lead, paints, paper and tea for purpose of raising revenue to pay for the defense and administration of the American colonies. Widespread American boycotts of British goods result. Several colonial legislatures protest the acts. |
| 1770 | Boston Massacre - British troops fire on a belligerent Boston mob. Three colonists are killed, eight are injured. |
| 1770 | Townshend Acts repealed by Parliament except for the tax on tea |
| 1770 | Population of the American colonies is about 2,205,000. |
| 1773 | Tea Act - repeals export tax on English tea heading for America, but maintains three penny import tax on Americans. A virtual tea monopoly is granted to the East India Company. A widespread boycott of British tea results. |
| 1773 | Boston Tea Party. Boston colonists empty East India Company tea into Boston Harbor in protest of Tea Act. |
| 1774 | Coercive (Intolerable) Acts passed by Parliament in response to the continuing rebelliousness of the Massachusetts Colony. The Boston Port Act forbids any trade ships from entering or leaving Boston harbor until the East Indian company is reimbursed for tea. The Administration of Justice Act allows British officials accused of crimes in Massachusetts to be tried in British, rather than American courts. The Government Act dissolved the Massachusetts Assembly and provided that all Massachusetts officials be appointed by the King or the royal governor. The act also limited the number of town meetings in the towns of the colony to one a year. The Quartering Act authorized the army to quarter troop wherever needed in all British colonies. |
| 1774 | The Quebec Act created a government for British Canada that did not include an elective assembly and jury trials were not guaranteed. The Southern boundary of Canada was defined as the Ohio River which meant that it included territory claimed by various American colonies. |
| 1774 | First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia with representatives from all of the colonies except Georgia. The Congress issues a Declaration and Resolves which oppose the Coercive Acts and other British measures and which assert the rights of colonists and colonial assemblies. |
| 1775 | Battles of Lexington and Concord erupt between Massachusetts militia and British troops when British troops march to Concord to destroy a colonial arms depot there. Revolutionary War begins. |
| 1775 | Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia and appoints George Washington as commander of the Continental Army. The Congress still rejects a declaration of independence. |
| 1776 | Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" is published and is widely read. Paine offers a clear and persuasive argument for independence from Britain. |
| 1776 | Declaration of Independence adopted by the Second Continental Congress. |
| 1776 | British exhibit military superiority at battles of Long Island (Brooklyn) and several other losses in the New York area, Washington's Continental Army flees to New Jersey and eventually Pennsylvania. |
| 1777 | Americans win important Battle of Saratoga and British General Burgoyne surrenders his force of 5700 soldiers to American General Gates. |
| 1777 | France officially recognizes the independence of the United States. In early 1778 the U.S. and French sign a treaty of alliance and a treaty of amity and commerce which said that if the British and French were to go to war, that France would not make peace until the independence of the U.S. was assured. France declares war on Britain in July 1778. Spain and the Netherlands will later join France in a war against Britain. |
| 1780 | Pennsylvania enact a law mandating the gradual abolition of slavery. Massachusetts adopts a bill of rights that applies to blacks and whites equally. |
| 1780 | British win the Battle of Charles Town and inflict heavy casualties on the Americans |
| 1781 | British General Cornwallis surrenders 8000 men to an army of 1600 American and French troop. The French also provide a key naval blockade. Cornwallis' surrender spells the end of British hopes for victory. By the end of the year battles have virtually ceased between British and American troops. |
| 1782 | Many loyalists begin to leave the United States for Canada and elsewhere. |
| 1783 | Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War is signed. Britain recognizes American independence and promises the withdrawal of British forces from American territory. Americans promise to respect the rights and property of loyalists and to help British merchants collect all debts owed to them by Americans. |