Prehistory: Early people may have come from Asia

5500 BC Anasazi in the Southwest (basket weavers)

1000 BC Northeast people came from Central America (mound builders)

700 AD Pueblo culture in Southwest

1200 s Pueblo culture declined because of drought and famine

1492- Columbus "discovers" the New World (landed in Bahamas)

1494 – Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal allows Spain into Southwest (250,000 Arawaks in Haiti)

1495- Slave raid in Haiti (500 sent to Spain, 200 died en route)

1515 - 50,000 Arawaks in Haiti

1519-1522 Magellan sails around the world

1520 – Start of Spanish expedition in Southwest led by Panfilo de Narvaez and Coronado (took Pueblo Indians as slaves)

1521- Protestant Reformation in Europe (Luther, Calvin, Knox, Henry VIII) led to more US immigrants

1560- 500 Arawaks in Haiti (1650 – 0 Arawaks in Haiti)

1579 – Sir Francis Drake landed in Central California.

1585-1590 Roanoke established in N. Carolina but died out

1598- Don Juan de Onate founded and settled New Mexico

1603- Samuel de Champlain from France began exploring Canada

The 17^th century: Colonization and Independence
1607- First successful colony Jamestown founded (Virginia) by John Smith
1620- Mayflower Compact and Plymouth colony (Mass.) (an interesting online presentation if you have time)

1624- Netherlands founds Fort Orange colony in Albany New York (Hudson Bay.)

1626- Netherlands purchases Manhattan Island for 24 dollars

1630-1642 Massassachusetts Bay Company brings 20000 people from England to Boston

1635 – Maryland settled

1636 – Rhode Island settled Pequot War (Massachusetts)

1638 – New Sweden in Delaware

1655 – New Amsterdam (Manhattan) expands and takes over Fort Christina from Sweden

1664- Britain takes over Dutch colonies

1673 – Marquette and Joillet (France) claim Louisiana Mississippi River area

1682 – Pennsylvania and Delaware colonized again by Quakers (William Penn)

1680 – Civil war and dictatorship among Pueblo Indians

1689 – 1763 French and Indian wars
1692- Salem Witch Trials, Spanish retook Southwest from Pueblos

1733- Georgia settled (Protestant and prisoners)
1741- Great Awakening and Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

1749 – French build forts to Montreal
1754- Albany Congress
1763- Treaty of Paris ends French and Indian Wars –France gives its colonies to Spain
1765- Stamp Act

1769 – 1823 Spanish missions founded up West Coast
1770- Boston Massacre
1773- Boston Tea Party
1775- "The shot heard 'round the world" (online movie) (link to text)

1776- Declaration of Independence
1777- Turning point of the Revolution at Saratoga
1778- France sides with the United States in the Revolution (Lafayette)
1779- John Paul Jones proclaims, "I have not yet begun to fight."
1780- American defeat at Charleston
1781- British surrender at Yorktown
1782- George Rogers Clark continues fighting in the West
1783- Treaty of Paris ends the Revolution

1787- Constitutional Convention and Northwest Ordinance
1789- George Washington's Inauguration
1791- Bill of Rights adopted

References:
(1) Mr. Stanley, available http://www.serve.com/ushistory/timeline.htm (in regular print)
(2) Boltmap, http://www.boltmap.com/BoltMapSlow.html (in italics)

(3) Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of The United States available at http://www.howardzinn.org/modules.php?name=Archive (especially Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress )