All events

North America

From the oldest rock on Earth to the year 2000 — a continent that was tropical seabed, the last refuge of the dinosaurs and home to cities larger than contemporary London, all before anyone drew a border on it.

• The oldest rock4.03 billion yrs ago
• The first supercontinent2.70 billion yrs ago
• The first Snowball Earth2.45 billion yrs ago – 2.22 billion yrs ago
• The iron of the Mesabi1.90 billion yrs ago
• The Gunflint microfossils1.88 billion yrs ago
• The Sudbury impact1.85 billion yrs ago
• Cells stay together1.56 billion yrs ago
• The Grenville mountains1.10 billion yrs ago – 980 million yrs ago
• Life starts eating life780 million yrs ago
• The brief ice age580.0 million yrs ago
• The Ediacaran fauna575.0 million yrs ago – 539.0 million yrs ago
• The Ediacaran fauna vanishes539.0 million yrs ago
• The Cambrian explosion538.0 million yrs ago
• The trilobite seas of Utah505.0 million yrs ago
• The continent underwater450.0 million yrs ago
• The Taconic orogeny450.0 million yrs ago – 440.0 million yrs ago
• The first forests385.0 million yrs ago
• The seed365.0 million yrs ago
• The first limbs in Pennsylvania365.0 million yrs ago
• The Appalachians rise325.0 million yrs ago – 260.0 million yrs ago
• The coal forests320.0 million yrs ago
• The shelled egg315.0 million yrs ago
• Mazon Creek309.0 million yrs ago
• The Capitan Reef265.0 million yrs ago
• The Petrified Forest220.0 million yrs ago
• Pangaea splits201.4 million yrs ago
• The largest animals ever to walk150.0 million yrs ago
• The Paluxy trackways113.0 million yrs ago
• Greenhouse Earth95.0 million yrs ago – 85.0 million yrs ago
• The Rocky Mountains rise70.0 million yrs ago – 40.0 million yrs ago
• Hell Creek68.0 million yrs ago – 66.0 million yrs ago
• The asteroid strikes66.0 million yrs ago
• Mammals inherit the world62.0 million yrs ago
• The Bighorn Basin warms56.0 million yrs ago
• The horse evolves in America55.0 million yrs ago – 0.01 million yrs ago
• The Green River lakes50.0 million yrs ago
• The South Dakota Badlands34.0 million yrs ago
• The Columbia River Basalts16.7 million yrs ago – 5.50 million yrs ago
• The Colorado cuts the Grand Canyon6.0 million yrs ago
• The Americas join3.0 million yrs ago
• The ice sheet shapes the continent2.6 million yrs ago – 13,700 yrs ago
• The Yellowstone eruptions2.1 million yrs ago – 642,000 yrs ago
• The La Brea tar pits52,000 yrs ago – 13,000 yrs ago
• Beringia32,000 yrs ago – 13,000 yrs ago
• People reach the Americas16,000 BCE
• The Missoula floods15,000 BCE – 13,000 BCE
• Lake Agassiz13,000 BCE – 8,200 BCE
• The great beasts vanish13,000 BCE – 10,000 BCE
• Before Clovis12,400 BCE
• The Clovis points11,050 BCE – 10,800 BCE
• The Folsom find10,800 BCE
• The desert peoples of the Southwest9,000 BCE
• Maize domesticated in Mexico7,000 BCE
• The copper of Lake Superior6,000 BCE – 3,000 BCE
• The mound builders of Louisiana3,500 BCE
• The Eastern Agricultural Complex3,000 BCE
• The first people in the Arctic2,500 BCE
• Poverty Point1,700 BCE – 1,100 BCE
• The Olmecs1,200 BCE – 400 BCE
• The Olmec colossal heads1,200 BCE – 400 BCE
• The Adena mounds800 BCE – 100
• Monte Albán500 BCE – 750
• The Maya script300 BCE – 900
• El Mirador300 BCE – 150
• The Long Count100 BCE
• Teotihuacán100 – 550
• The Hopewell network100 – 500
• The Classic Maya250 – 900
• The Hohokam canals450 – 1450
• The salmon societies of the Northwest Coast500 – 1800
• Tikal against Calakmul562 – 695
• Chaco Canyon850 – 1150
• The Maya cities abandoned900
• The Toltecs900 – 1150
• Chichen Itza900 – 1200
• The Mississippian world1000 – 1450
• The Norse in Vinland1021
• Cahokia1050 – 1350
• The Great Serpent Mound1070
• The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde1190 – 1300
• The Taíno1200 – 1492
• The Thule expansion1200 – 1400
• The chinampas1300 – 1600
• The Missouri River villages1300 – 1837
• Tenochtitlan founded1325
• The Purépecha state1350 – 1530
• The Navajo and Apache move south1400 – 1500
• The Triple Alliance1428 – 1521
• The Haudenosaunee Confederacy1450
• Columbus crosses the AtlanticOct 1492
• Hispaniola1494 – 1550
• The Columbian Exchange1500 – 1800
• The cod of the Grand Banks1500 – 1992
• The American population collapse1520 – 1600
• Tenochtitlan falls1521
• The de Soto expedition1539 – 1543
• The silver of Zacatecas1546 – 1810
• St Augustine1565
• Jamestown1607
• Quebec and the fur trade1608
• The Powhatan wars1610 – 1646
• Santa Fe is founded1610
• Tobacco builds Virginia1614 – 1776
• The New England epidemic1616 – 1619
• Slavery in North America1619 – 1865
• Plymouth1620
• New Amsterdam1624 – 1664
• The Beaver Wars1640 – 1701
• The sugar islands1640 – 1800
• The Jamaican Maroons1655 – 1739
• The Hudson's Bay Company1670 – 1870
• King Philip's War1675 – 1678
• The Pueblo Revolt1680 – 1692
• The Salem witch trials1692
• The Comanche empire1700 – 1875
• Smallpox inoculation in Boston1721
• The Natchez revolt1729 – 1731
• The Great Awakening1730 – 1755
• Franklin and the lightning1752
• The Seven Years' War in America1754 – 1763
• The expulsion of the Acadians1755 – 1764
• Pontiac's War1763 – 1766
• The California missions1769 – 1833
• The sea otter trade1774 – 1830
• The US Declaration of IndependenceJul 4, 1776
• The Haitian Revolution1791 – Jan 2, 1804
• The cotton gin1793
• The Louisiana Purchase1803
• Haiti becomes free1804
• Mexico becomes independent1821
• Sequoyah's syllabary1821
• The Lowell mill girls1823 – 1860
• The Erie Canal1825
• Audubon's birds1827 – 1838
• Indian Removal1830 – 1850
• The Underground Railroad1830 – 1863
• Manifest Destiny1845
• The Smithsonian is founded1846
• The Mexican–American War1846 – 1848
• Seneca Falls1848
• The California Gold Rush1848 – 1855
• The Plains Wars1854 – 1890
• The American Civil WarApr 1861 – Apr 1865
• The Homestead Act1862
• Emancipation1863
• Reconstruction1865 – 1877
• The transatlantic telegraph cableJul 27, 1866
• Alaska is bought from Russia1867
• Canada is formed1867
• The Métis resistance1869 – 1885
• The transcontinental railroad1869
• Standard Oil1870 – 1911
• The destruction of the bison1870 – 1884
• The world's first national park1872
• Pittsburgh and steel1875 – 1901
• The Porfiriato1876 – 1911
• The residential schools1879 – 1996
• The Chinese Exclusion Act1882 – 1943
• The electric gridSep 4, 1882
• The Canadian Pacific1885
• The skyscraper1885
• Haymarket1886
• The Michelson–Morley experiment1887
• How the Other Half Lives1890
• Ellis Island1892 – 1924
• 18981898
• The first flightDec 17, 1903
• The Mexican Revolution1910 – 1920
• Leavitt's yardstick1912
• The assembly line1913
• The Panama Canal1914
• The Great Migration1916 – 1970
• Jazz1917
• The 1918 influenza pandemicMar 4, 1918 – Apr 1920
• The Harlem Renaissance1925
• The first liquid-fuel rocket1926
• The universe is expanding1929
• The Great DepressionOct 1929 – 1939
• The New Deal1933 – 1939
• The Dust Bowl1934 – 1940
• Hoover Dam1936
• The first chain reaction1942
• Japanese American incarceration1942 – 1946
• Trinity1945
• The United Nations is foundedOct 24, 1945
• The suburb1947 – 1970
• The transistorDec 23, 1947
• The genes that jump1950
• Brown v. Board of Education1954
• The polio vaccine1955
• The civil rights movement1955 – 1968
• The Interstate Highway System1956 – 1992
• Marie Tharp maps the sea floor1957
• The Keeling Curve1958
• The Cuban Revolution1959
• The Quiet Revolution1960 – 1980
• The Cuban Missile Crisis1962
• Silent Spring1962
• Arecibo1963 – 2020
• The March on Washington1963
• The Green Revolution1965 – 1990
• The Voting Rights Act1965
• The 1965 immigration reform1965
• The Moon landingJul 20, 1969
• The internet's first messageOct 29, 1969
• Wounded Knee 19731973
• Hip hop begins in the Bronx1973
• The iridium layer1980
• Canada patriates its constitution1982
• The Mexico City earthquake1985
• Exxon Valdez1989
• The Oka Crisis1990
• NAFTA1994
• The Zapatistas1994
• Deep Blue beats KasparovMay 1997
• The search engineSep 1998
• Nunavut is created1999