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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peter Minuit purchases the island of Manhattan from local Indians and calls the place New Amsterdam

John Winthrop selects the site of Boston for the first Massachusetts settlement

John Winthrop, arriving in Massachusetts, begins the journal that is eventually published as The History Of New England

Maryland is granted to Lord Baltimore as a haven for English Roman Catholics

Williamsburg, first known as Middle Plantation, is founded in Virginia

North America's first university is founded at Cambridge in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and soon receives a large bequest from John Harvard

Rhode Island is founded by Roger Williams as a colony based on the principle of religious tolerance

War between English colonists and Pequot Indians brings disaster to the Pequots but safeguards the settlement of Connecticut

Richard Fairbanks, given responsibility for delivering mail in Massachusetts, is allowed to charge a penny per letter