.
25/3/1609. English navigator Henry Hudson, commissioned by Dutch East India Company, set off on his third and final attempt to find the North West Passage to the Spice Islands of the East.
13/5/1607. Captain John Smith landed on the Virginia coast with 103 cavaliers in three ships and founded the first permanent English settlement in the New World, Jamestown. See 19/12/1606.
19/12/1606, Colonists set out from England for Virginia.
28/1/1596. Sir Francis Drake died of dysentery and was buried at sea off Porto Bello, Panama.
17/8/1590, John White, Governor of Roanoke Island, returned to find the British colony deserted and the first European child born in America vanished. The word ‘Croatoan’ was left behind.
18/8/1587. Virginia Dare became the first child born of English parents in America. She was born on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, seven days after Sir Walter Raleigh’s second expedition landed. The parents were called Ananias and Ellinor Dare, and named the child Virginia in honour of the virgin Queen of England and the fledgling colony.
11/6/1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed from Plymouth, with the approval of Queen Elizabeth I, to found a British colony in America.
26/9/1580. Sir Francis Drake arrived back in Plymouth in the 100 ton Golden Hind (originally The Pelican) after 33 months, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. See 13/12/1577 and 4/4/1581.
17/6/1579. Sir Francis Drake anchored the Golden Hind just north of what was to become San Francisco Bay; he named the area New Albion, claiming it for Britain.
13/12/1577. Sir Francis Drake left Plymouth on his voyage round the world. See 26/9/1580.
28/8/1565, The Spanish established the settlement of St Augustine, Florida.
27/5/1562, Jean Ribaut, leading an expedition to found a Huguenot colony in New France, founded Port Royal, South Carolina, USA.
21/5/1542, Hernando de Soto, the first European to cross the Mississippi, died on the return journey.
8/5/1541, The River Mississippi was first seen by Europeans. The Spanish Conquistador, Hernando de Soto, reached the River in the area where Arkansas City is now sited.
1540, Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, a Spanish captain, became the first European to see the Grand Canyon. Spanish explorer Hernando de Alarcon discovered the Colorado River.
8/7/1524, Verrazzano's expedition returned to Dieppe.
17/4/1524, Verrazzano's expedition made the first European entry into New York Bay and sighted the island of Manhattan
22/2/1512. The Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who gave America his name, died in Seville.
See South-Central America 1490s for Columbus, exploration of Caribbean
9/3/1454, Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer who discovered the mouth of the Amazon and gave his name to America, was born.
Appendix 1 – Amerindian nations (see also Alaska, Florida)
30/6/1980, In the US, the Sioux nation won US$ 122.5 million in compensation and interest for illegal government seizure of their land in 1871.
1924, The US now allowed indigenous Indians to become full citizens. Indigenous Indian, Learned Hand, became the first Native American judge of the US Court of Appeals, serving until 1956.
1923, The Navajos set uo a Tribal Council, intitally to approve an oil and gas lease.
17/2/1909. Geronimo, the last Apache chief to surrender, died at his ranch on an Oklahoma reservation, aged 90.
29/12/1890. The Battle of Wounded Knee in South Dakota. This was the last major conflict between Red Indians, the Sioux, and US troops.
15/12/1890. Chief Sitting Bull, Sioux leader (born ca.1831), was shot dead in a scuffle with police in South Dakota whilst resisting arrest. He had fled to Canada after his victory over General Custer at Little Bighorn in 1876. He returned to the USA in 1881 and was jailed for 2 years. He performed for several years with Buffalo Bill’s travelling Wild West Show, but the suffering of his people led him to join the new Ghost Dance Movement, dedicated to destroying the Whites and restoring the lost Indian world. The US Government sent troops to suppress the Ghost Dance Movement and arrest its leaders; Sitting Bu