istoryworld
Events relating to the british empire
Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland on behalf of England's queen Elizabeth
Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, is settled by the first English colonists in America – with disastrous results
The English artist John White paints the everyday life of the Secotan Indians of America
A new group of English settlers arrives at Roanoke Island and makes a second attempt at a settlement
Virginia Dare becomes the first English child to be born in America, on Roanoke Island
An English ship, the first to arrive at Roanoke Island since 1587, finds no remaining trace of the settlers or their settlement
Britain's East India Company is established when Elizabeth I grants a charter to a 'Company of Merchants trading into the East Indies'
Colonists establish the first lasting British settlement in the new world, at Jamestown
John Smith claims (many years later) that when captured by Indians he was saved from execution by Pocahontas, daughter of the chief
Henry Hudson reaches the inlet of New York Bay and explores the river now known by his name
Castaways from an English vessel reach Bermuda, which becomes the first British island in the new world
Henry Hudson, after wintering in Hudson Bay, is set adrift in an open boat by his mutinous crew
The British East India establishes a 'factory' (a secure warehouse for the storing of Indian goods) at Surat, on the west coast
The American Indian princess Pocahontas is taken hostage by Jamestown colonists in the first Anglo-Powhatan war
Pocahontas is baptized a Christian and marries John Rolfe, one of the Jamestown colonists
John Smith publishes A Description of New England, an account of his exploration of the region in 1614
The Pilgrims (or Pilgrim Fathers), a group of 102 English settlers, sail in the Mayflower to the new world
Ten days after their first landfall, at Cape Cod, the adult males on the Mayflower agree a form of government for their new colony
The Pilgrims on the Mayflower select a place for their settlement, and give it the name of Plymouth, their port of departure in England
William Bradford begins a journal of the Pilgrims' experience in New England, subsequently published (in 1856) as History of Plymouth Plantation
The Mayflower settlers in Plymouth offer thanksgiving for their first harvest, eating turkeys in a celebration shared by local Indians
William Bradford, one of the Pilgrims from the Mayflower, is elected governor of the new Plymouth Colony
A sudden attack by Powhatan Indians, led by their chieftain Opechancanough against the English colony at Jamestown, results in the death of more than 300 settlers
A British colony is founded in Barbados and within fifteen years has 18,000 settlers
Rival Dutch, English and French colonies are established in Guiana, the northeast coast of south America
