Essential Chronology
- 1492, 1496, 1498, 1502
- Voyages of Columbus
- 1513
- Ponce de Leon visits Florida
- 1526
- Ayllon colony on the South Carolina or Virginia coast
- 1528
- Panfilo de Narvaez lands at Tampa Bay
- 1534
- The Supremacy Act [England]
makes monarch head of church and state
- 1536
- Cabeza de Vaca [survivor of the Narvaez expedition] reaches Mexico City
- 1539-1543
- Hernandez de Soto expedition in the southeast
- 1545
- Council of Trent begins the Counter-Reformation
- 1558-1603
- Elizabeth I
- 1559
- Pensacola settled
- 1562-1598
- Wars of Religion [Hugenot Wars]
- 1565
- Founding of St. Augustine
- 1585-1587
- Sir Walter Raleigh's Virginia colony [Roanoke Island}
- 1588
- Spanish Armada
- 1598
- Edict of Nantes [Religious liberty for Hugenots]
- 1603-1625
- James I
- 1607
- Settlement at Jamestown
- 1611
- Authorized version [AV/KJV] of bible
- 1619
- First slaves in Virginia; first meeting of House of Burgesses in Virginia
- 1632
- Charter for the Maryland Colony
- 1637
- Richmond founded
- 1649
- Death of Charles I in England
- 1649-1659
- Puritan Commonwealth [Interregnum]
- 1670
- Charter for Carolina colony
- 1671
- George Fox, Quaker, active in colonies
- 1680 [1670]
- Charleston founded
- 1685
- Revocation of the Edict of Nantes [Hugenots persecuted]
- 1698
- SPCK founded
- 1701
- SPG [SPGFP] founded
- 1710
- Mobile settled
- 1718
- New Orleans founded
- 1729
- Baltimore founded
- 1732
- Wilmington founded
- 1733
- Savannah founded
- 1733
- Charter for Georgia colony
- 1735-1737
- John & Charles Wesley active in Georgia
- 1739-1741; 1744-1748
- George Whitfield preaching in colonies
- 1745-1760
- Great Awakening in the South
- 1747
- Samuel Davies preaching
- 1750-1770
- "Regulators" active in NC, SC
- 1755-1758
- Arcadian expulsion from Nova Scotia
- 1771
- Francis Asbury [Methodist] active
- 1775-1781
- Revolutionary War
- 1779
- Nashville founded
- 1785
- Knoxville founded
- 1787
- U.S. Constitutional Convention
- 1793
- Eli Whitney invents cotton gin
- 1799-1801
- Cane Ridge, Ky.--Great Revival begins
- 1803
- Lousiana Purchase
- 1820
- Missouri Compromise
- 1822
- Denmark Vesey insurrection in South Carolina
- 1830
- Indian Removal Act
- 1831
- Nat Turner insurrection in Virginia
- 1838
- Trail of Tears; Removal of Eastern Cherokee and other tribes
- 1845
- Altanta founded [1837, Terminus; 1843 Marthasville]
- 1846-1848
- War with Mexico
- 1860
- Secession of South Carolina
- 1861
- April 12, Fort Sumter fired on
- 1865
- April 9, Lee surrenders at Appomattox
- 1865
- April 14, Lincoln assassinated
- 1867
- First Reconstruction Act
- 1871
- Birmingham founded
- 1876
- End of Reconstruction
- 1918
- End of World War I
- 1925
- Scopes Trial at Dayton, TN
- 1930-1940
- Great Depression
- 1933
- Tennessee Valley Authority created by Congress
- 1941
- December 7, Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
- 1945
- V-E, V-J; World War II ends
- 1950-1953
- Korean War
- 1954
- Brown vs. Board of Education ruling by U.S. Supreme Court
- 1960
- John F. Kennedy, first Roman Catholic, elected president
- 1963
- Assassination of President Kennedy
- 1964
- Civil Rights Act
- 1965
- Voting Rights Act