| AD 1 |
| c. 1 | El Mirador in northern Guatemala, perhaps the greatest early Maya city, is at its height |
| c. 1 | The growing city of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico has a population of more than 40,000 people |
| c. 50 | Nazca culture flourishes in coastal Peru; the Nazca create vast, enigmatic lines and patterns in the desert |
|
| AD 100 |
| c. 100 | The Moche civilization on the Peruvian coast begins; it flourishes at Sipan |
| c. 100 | Hopewell culture flourishes on upper Mississippi |
| c. 100 | Mogollon culture develops in southwestern United States; interesting painted pottery is produced |
| c. 100-200 | Monte Alban centre in Oaxaca, Mexico, at greatest extent of its power |
|
| AD 200 |
| c. 200-375 | First period of major construction at city of Tiahuanaco, near Lake Titicaca in Bolivia |
| c. 250 | In Guatemala, Honduras, and eastern Mexico, classic period of Maya civilization begins |
|
| AD 300 |
| c. 375-600 | City of Tiahuanaco continues to develop; eventually, 50,000 people live there |
| c. 378 | Rivalry between leading Maya cities Tikal and Uaxact™n ends in invasion and capture of Uaxact™n by Tikal, which goes on to great prosperity |
|
| AD 400 |
| RELIGIOUS WORLDS |
| c. 400 | Zapotec state with its capital at Monte Alban flourishes in southern Mexico |
|
| AD 500 |
| c. 500 | Thule people move into Alaska |
| c. 500 | Hopewell culture in northern America builds elaborate burial mounds, makes pottery, and uses iron weapons |
|
| AD 600 |
| c. 600 | Tiahuanaco civilization begins in Bolivia |
| c. 600 | Height of Maya civilization |
| c. 600 | Rise of Huari in Peru |
| c. 650 | Hopewell people established along the upper Mississippi river |
| c. 650 | Teotihuacan in Mexico thrives as an important trade centre |
|
| AD 700 |
| c. 700 | Rise of Mississippi culture in the Mississippi river basin; flat-topped mounds built as temple bases |
| c. 700-900 | In eastern Arizona, Pueblo people live in houses above ground for the first time |
| c. 750-800 | Collapse of Teotihuacan civilization in Mexico |
|
| AD 800 |
| NEW NATIONS |
| c. 800 | Hohokam people expand settlements and enlarge houses |
| c. 850 | Maya civilization in the southern lowlands of Mexico collapses; many cities are abandoned |
| c. 890 | Huari empire begins to collapse in Peru |
|
| AD 900 |
| c. 900-c. 1100 | Maya power in northern Mexico begins to fade |
| c. 900-c. 1100 | Pueblo settlements in North America; inhabitants build circular rooms with wall benches |
| c. 900-c. 1150 | Hohokam culture flourishes in Arizona and New Mexico, North America |
| c. 900 | Toltecs build capital at Tula, Mexico |
| 919-1130 | Pueblo peoples live at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico |
| 990s | Toltec people take over Chichen Itza |
|
| AD 1000 |
| MONKS AND INVADERS |
| c. 1000 | Farmers in Peru grow sweet potatoes and corn |
| c. 1000 | Leif Ericson reaches North America |
|
| AD 1100 |
| c. 1100 | Height of Chimu civilization at Chan Chan, on the northwest coast of Peru |
| c. 1100 | Anasazi people in North America build cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and the Canyon de Chelly |
| 1100s | Rise of Incas in Peru; they were farmers led by warrior chiefs |
| 1100-1200 | Hohokam people of Arizona, North America, begin to build platform mounds |
| c. 1150 | End of Hopewell culture in North America |
| 1170s | Mexican Toltecs' capital at Tula overthrown by fierce Chichimec nomads by the northern desert |
| c. 1180 | Toltecs driven out of Chichen Itza |
| c. 1190 | End of first period in which flat-topped mounds were built as bases for temples in the Mississippi river area |
|
| AD 1200 |
| CONQUEST AND PLAGUE |
| c. 1200 | Cahokia in North America, city of temple mounds, at its height |
| c. 1200 | Incas in Peru centred around growing settlement of Cuzco |
| c. 1200-50 | Complexes of apartment blocks and circular kivas built at Cliff Canyon and Fewkes Canyon, Colorado |
| c. 1250s | Chimu people expand their empire along northern coast of Peru |
| c. 1250s | Maya revival; following collapse of ChichÈn Itz·, a new capital is built at Mayapan |
|
| AD 1300 |
| c. 1300 | Incas begin to expand their empire throughout the central Andes |
| c. 1325 | Aztecs found city of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) on an island in Lake Texcoco |
| c. 1370 | Acampitchtli chosen king of Aztecs |
| c. 1390s | Viracocha becomes eighth Inca ruler; an Inca myth tells how he travelled to the Pacific and never returned |
|
| AD 1400 |
| THE EXPANSION OF KNOWLEDGE |
| c. 1400 | Pueblo people abandon northern sites and gather in large towns |
| 1400s | Expansion of Aztec empire in Mexico |
| 1400s | Inca empire enters period of expansion |
| 1426-40 | Aztecs at Tenochtitlan form „Triple Alliance¾ with neighbouring cities of Texcoco and Tlacopan; emperor Itzcoatl reorganizes state to concentrate power in his hands |
| c. 1438 | Inca emperor Viracocha dies; his successor Pachacuti expands Inca empire north to Ecuador |
| 1440s | Incas build great fortress at Cuzco |
| 1440-68 | Reign of Aztec emperor Moctezuma I; he and his warriors conquer large areas of eastern Mexico, taking many people prisoner |
| c. 1450 | Inca city of Machu Picchu built on high ridge above Urubamba river in Peru |
| 1455 | Huge temple built to Aztec war god Huitzilopochtli in Tenochtitlan |
| 1470s | Collapse of Chimu culture in northern Peru |
| 1471-93 | Emperor Topa Inca expands Inca empire into Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina |
| 1473 | Tenochtitlan absorbs neighbouring Aztec city, Tlatelolco |
| 1486-1502 | Rule of Aztec emperor Ahuitzotl; Aztec empire at height of power in Mexico |
|
| AD 1500 |
| THE GREAT RULERS |
| 1500s | French exploration in Canada begins |
| 1502-04 | Columbus's fourth voyage; he reaches Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia |
| 1513 | Vasco N™'ez de Balboa, Spanish explorer, first sights the Pacific Ocean |
| 1519-21 | Hernando Cort's, Spanish soldier-explorer, brings down the Aztec empire in Mexico |
| 1532-33 | Francisco Pizarro, Spanish soldier, invades and destroys Inca empire in Peru |
| 1534 | French explorer, Jacques Cartier, makes first expedition to settle in Canada |
| 1540s | Spanish arrive in California |
| 1576 | Martin Frobisher, English explorer, sets out to find a northwest passage to China; he reaches the Canadian coast, and Frobisher Bay is named after him |
| 1584 | Sir Walter Raleigh sends an exploring party to Virginia in North America, followed a year later by a colonizing expedition, which fails |
|
| AD 1600 |
| COMMERCE AND COLONIES |
| 1607 | Jamestown Colony, first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in Virginia |
| 1608 | Quebec in Canada founded by French settlers |
| 1610 | Hudson Bay explored by Henry Hudson |
| 1620 | Pilgrim Fathers sail to America in the Mayflower |
| 1625 | French settlements in the Caribbean (St Christopher) begin |
| 1626 | Dutch found New Amsterdam in North America |
| 1629 | Massachusetts founded |
| 1638 | First printing press reaches America |
| 1642 | Montreal, Canada, founded |
| 1646 | The Bahamas colonized by the English |
| 1655 | English capture Jamaica from the Spanish |
| 1664 | English capture New Amsterdam from the Dutch; it is renamed New York |
| 1679 | Father Hennepin reaches Niagara Falls in Canada |
| 1681 | Territory granted in North America to English Quaker William Penn; known as Pennsylvania |
| 1681-82 | Frenchman La Salle explores Mississippi river from source to mouth, and founds Louisiana |
|
| AD 1700 |
| THE AGE OF ENQUIRY |
| 1700s | European settlers exploit the Caribbean |
| 1700s | North American colonies begin to prosper |
| 1701 | City of Detroit founded in North America by Antoine de Cadillac to control passage between Lakes Erie and Huron |
| 1711 | Tuscarora War between settlers and Native Americans in North Carolina |
| 1715 | Yamasee nation attacks South Carolina colony, killing hundreds of English settlers |
| 1716 | French build fortress, one of the strongest in North America, at Louisbourg in Canada |
| 1717 | Spain establishes Viceroyalty of New Granada in South America |
| 1718 | City of New Orleans is founded on Mississippi river |
| 1718 | Death of William Penn, the Quaker founder of the state of Pennsylvania |
| 1718-20 | Dispute between French and Spanish over territory of Texas; Texas becomes Spanish possession |
| 1726 | Spanish found city of Montevideo in Uruguay to stop further Portuguese colonization southwards from Brazil |
| 1727 | Coffee first planted in Brazil, by Europeans |
| 1727 | First discovery of diamonds in Brazil in Minas Gerais area where gold is already mined |
| 1730s | Vitus Bering, Danish explorer employed by Russia, reaches strait between Asia and North America named after him |
| 1735 | Libel trial of John Peter Zeuger in New York helps establish freedom of the press in North America |
| 1736 | Natural rubber discovered in the humid rain forests of Peru |
| 1736 | Academic schools of S'o Paulo and S'o Jos' founded in Brazil by Portuguese Jesuits |
| 1739 | Outbreak of War of Jerkins' Ear; Spain and Britain fight for control of North American and Caribbean waters |
| 1739 | South Carolina is shaken by slave revolts |
| 1740s | Population of the 13 colonies reaches 1.5 million, including 250,000 slaves; Boston and Philadelphia largest cities |
| 1742 | Juan Santos takes name Atahualpa II and leads Native Americans of Peru in unsuccessful revolt against Spanish |
| 1745 | British force including New England settlers capture French fortress of Louisbourg in Canada |
| 1753 | French occupy Ohio valley in North America |
| 1754-63 | Anglo-French war in North America |
| 1759 | General James Wolfe defeats French at the Battle of Quebec |
| 1759 | Jesuits expelled from Brazil by Portuguese authorities |
| 1760 | All Canada passes into British hands |
| 1762 | British expedition against Cuba seizes Havana from Spain |
| 1763 | Rio de Janeiro becomes capital of Brazil |
| 1763 | Pontiac Conspiracy: Native Americans rise against British in North America |
| 1765 | Stamp Act imposed on British colonies in Americas |
| 1773 | Boston Tea Party: colonists in North America rebel against British taxes |
| 1775 | American Revolution breaks out in skirmish at Lexington |
| 1776 | US Declaration of Independence (4 July) |
| 1776 | Spanish create Viceroyalty of La Plata in South America |
| 1777 | Treaty of San Idelfonso defines Spanish and Portuguese possessions in Brazil |
| 1780-82 | Revolt of Tupac Amaru, Inca descendant, in Peru |
| 1781 | British Lord Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, ending American Revolution |
| 1783 | US independence recognized at Treaty of Paris |
| 1787 | US Constitution drawn up |
| 1789 | Conspiracy of Tiradentes in Brazil; revolt in Minas Gerais gold mines |
| 1789-97 | George Washington is first president of the United States |
| 1790s | Revolt in Haiti against French rule, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, who for a time runs the country |
| 1791 | Canada Act divides Canada into Upper and Lower Canada |
| 1793 | Trinidad captured from Spanish in Caribbean |
|
| AD 1800 |
| INDEPENDENCE AND INDUSTRY |
| 1801 | Thomas Jefferson becomes third US president |
| 1803 | Louisiana Purchase; United States buys vast tracts of land in Midwest from France |
| 1804-06 | Lewis and Clark's expedition beyond Mississippi |
| 1807 | Portugal's John VI flees to Brazil; his son Pedro declares it independent under him in 1822 |
| 1808-09 | Rebellions against Spain begin in South America |
| 1810 | Hidalgo begins revolts against Spanish rule in Mexico |
| 1812-14 | United States in war with Britain; White House burnt |
| 1816 | BolÌvar defeats Spanish in Venezuela; independence confirmed in 1821 |
| 1820 | The US Missouri Compromise ensures a balance between free and slave states |
| 1821 | San Martin wins independence for Peru |
| 1825 | BolÌvar founds new state of Bolivia |
| 1828 | Uruguay becomes independent |
| 1836 | Texas wins independence from Mexico; siege of the Alamo |
| 1838 | Trail of Tears; in the United States, thousands of eastern Native Americans are forced to move west, many dying on the way |
| 1840 | Upper and Lower Canada are united in self-governing union |
| 1846-48 | US war against Mexico; California and New Mexico ceded to United States |
| 1848 | Meeting in Seneca Falls, New York, calls for equal rights for American women |
| 1849 | California gold Rush |
| c. 1850 | Jeans invented in California, United States |
| 1850 | US Congress compromises over expansion of slavery; fails to resolve tension between states |
| 1850-89 | Remarkable national progress in Brazil under Pedro II |
| 1856 | Anti-slavery Republican party formed in United States |
| 1858-61 | Reformer Benito Juarez is Mexican president |
| 1859 | John Brown's attempt to start slave revolt alarms whites in southern United States |
| 1861-65 | Civil War in United States; attempt by southern states to secede is defeated |
| 1862 | US land given to European immigrants to farm |
| 1862-90 | Last wars against Native Americans in western United States |
| 1863-67 | French invade Mexico and set up Austrian archduke Maximilian as emperor of Mexico |
| 1865 | Thirteenth Amendment to US Constitution outlaws slavery |
| 1865-70 | Paraguay attacks neighbouring countries and is almost annihilated |
| 1866-77 | Northern US Republicans force through radical reconstruction of southern states |
| 1867 | Britain makes Canada a dominion |
| 1870-88 | Antonio Guzman rules Venezuela; major reforms |
| 1876 | In United States, Alexander Bell invents telephone |
| 1877 | US inventor Thomas Edison invents the record-player |
| 1876-1911 | Rule of President Diaz of Mexico: period of great expansion |
| 1879-84 | The War of the Pacific between Chile, Peru, and Bolivia |
| 1883 | Edison invents the light bulb |
| 1885 | Canadian Pacific railway opens |
| 1886 | American Federation of Labor established |
| 1888 | Slaves freed in Brazil |
| 1889 | First Pan-American Conference held at Washington |
| 1889 | Pedro II deposed by army revolt; Brazil becomes a republic |
| 1891 | Civil war in Chile |
| 1898 | Spanish-American War; Spain gives Cuba independence, United States takes Puerto Rico, Guam, and Philippines as colonies |
|
| AD 1900 |
| THE WORLD GOES TO WAR |
| 1901-09 | Theodore Roosevelt is US president; he works to reform business, railways, child labour, and to conserve natural resources |
| 1903 | Panama secedes from Colombia with US backing |
| 1903 | Boundary dispute over Alaska between Canada and United States settled |
| 1904 | Final settlement between Bolivia and Chile after the War of the Pacific |
| 1904-09 | Presidency of Ismael Montes in Bolivia; period of social and political reforms |
| 1905 | Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan formed in Canada |
| 1906 | Alaska elects a delegate to US Congress |
| 1906 | Cuba occupied by US forces following a liberal revolt |
| 1907 | Run on American banks checked by J P Morgan |
| 1908 | Henry Ford produces first Model T car |
| 1911 | President Diaz of Mexico overthrown |
| 1912 | Alaska granted territorial status in United States |
| 1912 | Arizona and New Mexico become US states |
| 1912 | Secret ballot and universal suffrage introduced in Argentina |
| 1913-21 | Woodrow Wilson is president of United States |
| 1914 | Panama Canal opened |
| 1914 | Completion of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in Canada |
| 1916-22 | Hipolito Irigoyen elected president of Argentina: extensive reforms |
| 1917 | Mexico adopts a new constitution |
| 1917 | Brazil declares war on Germany |
| 1917 | United States declares war on Germany |
| 1918 | Venezuela oilfields opened |
| 1918 | US President Wilson puts forward the Fourteen Points for settling World War I |
| 1919-20 | US Congress refuses to recognize League of Nations |
| 1919-30 | Great material progress in Peru during presidency of Augusto LeguÌa |
| 1920-33 | Prohibition against sale of alcohol in United States |
| 1921-25 | Progressive government of President Juan Bautista Saavedra in Bolivia |
| 1922 | First portable radio and first car radio made in United States |
| 1926 | Panama and United States agree to protect Panama canal in wartime |
| 1929 | US Wall Street Stock Exchange crashes; Great Depression follows |
| 1930 | Getulio Vargas becomes Brazilian president, and assumes dictatorial powers in 1937 |
| 1932 | Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes US president |
| 1932-35 | Chaco war between Bolivia and Paraguay |
| 1933 | Peruvian president Sanchez Cherro assassinated by an „aprista¾ |
| 1933 | US „New Deal¾ laws, such as National Industry Recovery Act, promote economic recovery |
| 1935 | US Social Security Act - first step in creation of welfare state |
| 1937 | US National Labour Relations Act |
| 1938 | Mexico takes over US and British oil companies in Mexico |
| 1941 | US Congress passes Lend-Lease Act; billions of dollars' worth of military hardware loaned to Allies |
| 1944 | First free presidential elections in Guatemala |
| 1945 | US scientists build first atomic bomb |
| 1947 | In Truman Doctrine US government promises aid to any government resisting Communism |
| 1948-51 | Under Marshall Plan, United States dispenses aid to Europe to help post-war recovery |
| 1949 | United States and West European nations set up North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for collective security |
| 1950s | Black Americans intensify campaign for civil rights |
| 1955 | Army officers seize power from Argentinian president Peron |
| 1962 | Cuban missile crisis |
| 1963 | US president John F Kennedy assassinated |
| 1963 | Thousands march on Washington DC to press for civil rights for black Americans |
| 1964 | Military leaders seize power in Brazil |
| 1964 | US Civil Rights Act bans racial discrimination in federal funding and employment |
| 1968 | Major protests in United States against Vietnam war |
| 1969 | US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin land on the moon |
| 1970-74 | Micro-computers developed in United States |
| 1972 | US Congress passes Equal Opportunity Act in response to growing women's movement |
| 1973 | Elected Chilean president Allende killed in a military coup led by General Pinochet |
| 1973 | United States launches space station Skylab 4 |
| 1974 | US president Nixon resigns after Watergate scandal |
| 1978 | Camp David summit between Egypt and Israel hosted by the United States |
| 1979 | Sandinistas seize power in Nicaragua |
| 1980-82 | Civil war in El Salvador |
| 1982 | Falklands War between Argentina and Britain |
| 1982 | Mexico fails to repay foreign loans, provoking international financial crisis |
| 1989 | US soldiers invade Panama and depose ruler, General Noriega |
| 1990 | Sandinistas defeated in Nicaraguan elections |
| 1993 | Palestinian leader Arafat and Israeli prime minister Rabin sign peace agreement in United States |
| 1994 | Sports legend, O J Simpson tried for murder. He is acquitted in 1995 |
