1000 Farmers in Peru grow sweet potatoes and corn

1000 Leif Ericson reaches North America

1100 Height of Chimu civilization at Chan Chan, on the northwest coast of Peru

1100 Anasazi people in North America build cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and the Canyon de Chelly

1100 Rise of Incas in Peru; they were farmers led by warrior chiefs

1100 Hohokam people of Arizona, North America, begin to build platform mounds

1150 End of Hopewell culture in North America

1170 Mexican Toltecs' capital at Tula overthrown by fierce Chichimec nomads by the northern desert

1180 Toltecs driven out of Chichen Itza

1190 End of first period in which flat-topped mounds were built as bases for temples in the Mississippi river area

1200 Cahokia in North America, city of temple mounds, at its height

1200 Incas in Peru centred around growing settlement of Cuzco

1200-1250 Complexes of apartment blocks and circular kivas built at Cliff Canyon and Fewkes Canyon, Colorado

1250 Chimu people expand their empire along northern coast of Peru

1250 Maya revival; following collapse of ChichÈn Itz, a new capital is built at Mayapan

1300 Incas begin to expand their empire throughout the central Andes

1325 Aztecs found city of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) on an island in Lake Texcoco

1370 Acampitchtli chosen king of Aztecs

1390 Viracocha becomes eighth Inca ruler; an Inca myth tells how he travelled to the Pacific and never returned

1400 Pueblo people abandon northern sites and gather in large towns

1400 Expansion of Aztec empire in Mexico

1400 Inca empire enters period of expansion

1426-1440 Aztecs at Tenochtitlan form „Triple Alliance¾ with neighbouring cities of Texcoco and Tlacopan; emperor Itzcoatl reorganizes state to concentrate power in his hands

1438 Inca emperor Viracocha dies; his successor Pachacuti expands Inca empire north to Ecuador

1440 Incas build great fortress at Cuzco

1440-1468 Reign of Aztec emperor Moctezuma I; he and his warriors conquer large areas of eastern Mexico, taking many people prisoner

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

1470 Collapse of Chimu culture in northern Peru

1471-1493 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

1500 French exploration in Canada begins

1502-1504 Columbus's fourth voyage; he reaches Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia

1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Spanish explorer, first sights the Pacific Ocean

1519-1521 Hernando Cort's, Spanish soldier-explorer, brings down the Aztec empire in Mexico

1532-1533 Francisco Pizarro, Spanish soldier, invades and destroys Inca empire in Peru

1534 French explorer, Jacques Cartier, makes first expedition to settle in Canada

1540 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

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

1681-1682 Frenchman La Salle explores Mississippi river from source to mouth, and founds Louisiana

1700 European settlers exploit the Caribbean

1700 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

1718-1720 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

1730 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

1740 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

1754-1763 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

1780-1782 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

1789-1797 George Washington is first president of the United States

1790 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

1801 Thomas Jefferson becomes third US president

1803 Louisiana Purchase; United States buys vast tracts of land in Midwest from France

1804-1806 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

1808-1809 Rebellions against Spain begin in South America

1810 Hidalgo begins revolts against Spanish rule in Mexico

1812-1814 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

1846-1848 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

1850 Jeans invented in California, United States

1850 US Congress compromises over expansion of slavery; fails to resolve tension between states

1850-1889 Remarkable national progress in Brazil under Pedro II

1856 Anti-slavery Republican party formed in United States

1858-1861 Reformer Benito Juarez is Mexican president

1859 John Brown's attempt to start slave revolt alarms whites in southern United States

1861-1865 Civil War in United States; attempt by southern states to secede is defeated

1862 US land given to European immigrants to farm

1862-1890 Last wars against Native Americans in western United States

1863-1867 French invade Mexico and set up Austrian archduke Maximilian as emperor of Mexico

1865 Thirteenth Amendment to US Constitution outlaws slavery

1865-1870 Paraguay attacks neighbouring countries and is almost annihilated

1866-1877 Northern US Republicans force through radical reconstruction of southern states

1867 Britain makes Canada a dominion

1870-1888 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

1879-1884 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

1901-1909 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

1904-1909 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

1913-1921 Woodrow Wilson is president of United States

1914 Panama Canal opened

1914 Completion of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in Canada

1916-1922 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

1919-1920 US Congress refuses to recognize League of Nations

1919-1930 Great material progress in Peru during presidency of Augusto LeguÌa

1920-1933 Prohibition against sale of alcohol in United States

1921-1925 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

1932-1935 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

1948-1951 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

1950 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

1970-1974 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

1980-1982 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



