With the sea level falling, a land bridge (known as Beringia) forms between Siberia and Alaska, enabling humans to enter the continent of America

The La Brea tarpit in Los Angeles shows signs of human activity in the region

Archaeological evidence reveals that the central plains of north America by now have a widespread human population

As the ice cap recedes, hunter-gatherers move up the eastern side of America into Newfoundland and the prairie provinces of Canada

Human groups adapt to the conditions of northern Canada and then Greenland, living mainly as hunters of marine mammals

On the grass plains of north America humans gradually hunt to extiinction several American species, including the camel, mammoth and horse

By now the mammoth, the giant bison and the horse are all extinct in America, partly because of the warming climate and partly because of the success of humans with spears

Burial mounds feature in the Ohio valley, built first in the Adena culture and then by Hopewell tribes

Eric Thorvaldsson, or Eric the Red, sails to Greenland when he is exiled from Iceland

Leif Ericsson claims to have made landfall at three places in north America, one of which he names Vinland - the land of wine

Thorfinn Karlsefni leads an expedition to north America, traces of which may survive in a longhouse at L'Anse aux Meadows

The Viking settlement in Greenland ends, after 400 years, when the last ship leaves the colony and sails for Norway

Henry VII commissions the Italian navigator John Cabot to cross the Atlantic in search of new territories for England

John Cabot, searching for a trade route to China, probably reaches Newfoundland

The editor of a pamphlet proposes that the recently found continent should be named America after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci

French explorer Jacques Cartier charts the Gulf of St Lawrence and, in 1525, explores up the river as far as Montreal

Cartier, welcomed by the Huron Indians, gives their island in the St Lawrence river the name of Montreal

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado penetrates far north and west of Texas in an expedition searching for gold

Five tribal troups form a League of Five Nations, commonly known as the Iroquois League or Confederacy, against their common enemy the Huron

Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland on behalf of England's queen Elizabeth

Two English ships, sent on reconnaissance by Walter Raleigh, reach Roanake Island off the coast of North Carolina

The local tribe of Indians, the Secotan, welcome the English visitors, offering them a profusion of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables in return for hatchets and axes

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