Time 

Historical Events 

30-40,000 BC

Nomadic tribes of woolly mammoth hunters cross the Bering Strait land bridge to North America

8/3/1492

Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain aboard the Santa Maria accompanied by the Nina and the Pinta

10/12/1492

Columbus discovers the Americas: San Salvador, more likely Samana Cay in the Bahamas

1513

Ponce de Leon searching for "The Fountain of Youth" reaches and names Florida

1539

De Soto explores Florida

1541

De Soto discovers Mississippi River; Coronado explores from New Mexico across Texas, Oklahoma and eastern Kansas

1565

St. Augustine founded (razed by Francis Drake in 1586)

1585

Sir Walter Raleigh supports an expedition of colonists to Roanoke Island on present-day North Carolina Outer Banks

1586

Sir Francis Drake finds Roanoke Island colonists hungry and ready to return to England

1587

Raleigh sent another 107 men and women to help the Roanoke Island colonists and they are nowhere to be found. To this day they have been dubbed "The Lost Colony".

1605

The Virginia Company and The Plymouth Company given permission to "colonize" Virginia (North America).

1605

Santa Fe, New Mexico, founded (some say 1609)

12/20/1606

The ships: Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery; carrying 104 colonists depart England, arrive Chesapeake Bay 1607 and founded Jamestown.

1607

Virginia (Jamestown) Colony established: 1 of original 13 colonies

1609

Henry Hudson set sail aboard the Half Moon looking for "the northwest passage" to China, discovered the Hudson Bay, River and Strait instead

1609-1610

The starving time. Jamestown Settlement in "dire straits": many dead, cannibalism etc.

1612

John Rolfe crosses Virginia Tobacco with a milder Jamaican Leaf resulting in the cash crop tobacco as we know it today.

1620

Massachusetts (Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay) Colony established: 2 of original 13 colonies

11/11/1620

The  Mayflower Compact

1626

New York (New Amsterdam) Colony established: 3 of original 13

1633

Maryland Colony established: 4 of original 13 colonies

1636

Rhode Island and Connecticut Colonies established: 5 and 6 of original 13 colonies

1638

Delaware and New Hampshire Colonies established: 7 and 8 of original 13 colonies

1653

North Carolina Colony: 9 of original 13 colonies

1663

South Carolina Colony: 10 of original 13 colonies

1664

New Jersey Colony established: 11 of original 13 colonies

1682

Pennsylvania Colony established: 12 of original 13 colonies

1692

Salem Massachusetts: 19 "Witches" hung and one husband suffocated for practicing witchcraft

1732

Georgia Colony established: 13 of original 13 colonies

3/5/1770

The Boston Massacre: Crispus Attucks, former slave, first to be killed

12/6/1773

The Boston Tea Party

4/18/1775

Paul Revere's Ride

4/18/1775

"The shot heard round the world"; 8 Minutemen killed by British troops at Lexington Massachusetts

4/18/1775 - 2/3/1783

Revolutionary War: 6,188 Americans Wounded,  4,435 Americans Killed

7/4/1776

The Declaration of Independence is signed

6/14/1777

The first Flag design adopted by Congress

9/17/1787

The Continental Congress votes to submit The U. S. Constitution to The States for ratification.

June 1788

The Constitution is Ratified by all States

12/15/1791

1800

The Bill of Rights  is ratified

The Nation's Capital