Timeline of pre–United States history

This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from before the lead up to the American Revolution (c. 1760).

Antiquity

Native Americans cross the Trans-Siberian land bridge.
Vikings sail the Atlantic.

1400–1499

Christopher Columbus landing in the New World.

1492 - Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Hispaniola, discovering the New World for 15th century Europe.
1497 - John Cabot lands in Newfoundland, beginning the British colonial presence in North America.

Christopher Columbus, financed by Spain, makes the first voyages to the New World. He lands in the Bahamas. (Oct. 12)

1500–1599

1513 - Vasco Núñez de Balboa crosses isthmus of Panama, sees Pacific Ocean.
1513 - Juan Ponce de León defeats Tlaxcala, a small state neighboring the Aztec empire.
1520s - Spanish begin conquest of Maya civilization.
1521 - Hernán Cortés destroys the Aztec empire.
1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano, working for France, explores coastline from present-day Maine to North Carolina.
1542 - Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River, strengthening Spanish claims to the interior of North America.
1565 - Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds St. Augustine, Florida the first Spanish settlement in the New World, and is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States.
1570s - Iroquois Confederacy founded.
1587 - Sir Walter Raleigh founds Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the New World, in the Virginia Colony.
1590 - Roanoke Colony found deserted.

1600–1699

1600s

1607 - Jamestown is founded by the Virginia Company of London as the beginning of the Colony of Virginia.
1607 - Popham Colony founded by the Virginia Company of Plymouth in present-day Maine. It is abandoned the following year.

1610s

1614 - Dutch claim New Netherland.
1619 - Slavery introduced to the Colony of Virginia.

1620s

The Mayflower in Plymouth.

1620 - Mayflower Compact signed.
1625 - Foundation of New York City as New Amsterdam.
1628 - Massachusetts Bay Colony founded.

1630s

Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, the founder of Maryland

1630 - Winthrop Fleet to Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1630 - Manor of Rensselaerswyck founded.
1634 - Province of Maryland founded.
1634 - Theologian Roger Williams banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1635 - Connecticut Colony founded by Thomas Hooker.
1636 - Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations founded by Roger Williams.
1636 - Harvard College founded.
1637 - New Haven Colony founded.
1637 - Pequot War ends in New England.
1638 - Delaware Colony founded.
1638 - New Sweden established.
1639 - Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony signed.
1639 - Fundamental Orders of Connecticut adopted.

1640s

1640 - French and Iroquois Wars escalate to full warfare.
1643 - New England Confederation created
1643-1645 - Kieft's War in New Netherland
1644-1646 - Third Anglo–Powhatan War
1649 - Maryland Toleration Act
1649 - Execution of King Charles I and establishment of Commonwealth in England.

1650s

1655-1660 - Peach Tree War
1659-1663 - Esopus Wars

1660s

New Amsterdam is captured by the English

1660 - British republic collapses, Charles II becomes King
1662 - Halfway Covenant adopted
1663 - King Charles II grants charter for a new colony, Province of Carolina
1664 - New Amsterdam captured by the English at the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War
1667 - New Netherland ceded to England under Treaty of Breda
1669-1670 - John Lederer of Virginia explores the Appalachian Mountains

1670s

1670 - Charles Town (Charleston) founded in present-day South Carolina
1671 - The Batts-Fallam expedition sponsored by Abraham Wood reaches the New River (West Virginia)
1672 - Blue Laws enacted in Connecticut
1672-1673 - Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette explore the Illinois Country
1674 - New Netherland permanently relinquished to English with Treaty of Westminster
1675 - King Philip's War (1675–76) in New England
1676 - Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia
1677 - Province of Maine absorbed by Massachusetts Bay Colony
1679 - War between the Westo and colonial South Carolina results in the destruction of the Westo.

1680s

William Penn signing a treaty with the Native Americans of Pennsylvania

1680 - Pueblo Revolt in Spanish New Mexico
1682 - Province of Pennsylvania founded by William Penn
1682 - René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle travels down the Mississippi River to its mouth
1685 - King Charles II dies and James II succeeds to throne, reducing colonial autonomy
1686 - Dominion of New England decreed
1687 - Yamasee Indians from Spanish Florida move to South Carolina, becoming an important ally of the English
1688 - Glorious Revolution deposes James II and replaces him with William and Mary
1689 - Dominion of New England ceases to exist as Governor is deposed.
1689 - King William's War (1689–1697), part of the wider War of the Grand Alliance, begins

A 19th century illustration of the Salem Witch Trials

1690s

1690 - Schenectady Massacre
1692 - Salem witch trials in colonial Massachusetts
1697 - The War of the Grand Alliance, known as King William's War in North America, ends with the Treaty of Ryswick
1698 - Pensacola, Florida established by the Spanish
1699 - Biloxi, Mississippi by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville

Rev. Jonathan Edwards, a leader of the Great Awakening, is still remembered for his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

1700–1759

See Timeline of the American Revolution for events starting from 1760.

1700s

1701 - The Collegiate school at Saybrook is founded in Connecticut; it will later be renamed as Yale College
1702 - William III dies, is succeeded by Queen Anne
1702 - Queen Anne's War (War of the Spanish Succession) begins
1702 - East Jersey and West Jersey become crown colonies

1710s

1715 - Yamasee War in South Carolina colony

1720s

1725 - Father Rale's War (1722-1725)
1727 - George I dies, is succeeded by George II
1729 - Province of Carolina proprietors sell out to Crown

1730s

1732 - First Great Awakening was also time of war

August 4, 1735 Verdict rendered in the New York City trial of John Peter Zenger

1740s

1749 - Province of Georgia overturns its ban on slavery
1749 - Father Le Loutre's War (1749-1755)

1750s

1752 - Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment
1754 - French and Indian War begins, part of the Seven Years' War
1754 - Albany Congress, in which a "Union of Colonies" is proposed
1758 - Treaty of Easton