Timeline of United States pre-history (before 1600)

This section of the Timeline of United States history concerns events before 1600.

1492 - Christopher Columbus lands on one of the Bahamas Islands, discovering the New World for 15th century Europe
1497 - Giovanni Caboto lands in Newfoundland, beginning the British presence in North America.

1513 - Vasco Núñez de Balboa crosses isthmus of Panama, sees Pacific Ocean
1513 - Juan Ponce de León claims Florida for Spain
1519 - Hernán Cortés defeats Tlaxcala, a small state neighboring the Aztec empire
1520s - Spanish begin conquest of Maya civilization
1521 - Cortes destroys the Aztec empire
1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano, working for France, explores coastline from present-day North Carolina to Maine
1542 - Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River, strengthening Spanish claims to the interior of North America
1570s - Iroquois League founded
1587 - Sir Walter Raleigh founds Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the New World, in the Virginia territory
1590 - Roanoke found deserted