Americas Timeline of Events

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Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily used to refer to the United States of America...

Timeline of Events

1493

3.15.1493

Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.

1587

8.18.1587

Virginia Dare, granddaughter of governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, becomes the first English child born in the Americas.

1606

12.20.1606

The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

1619

7.30.1619

In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time.

12.4.1619

38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (this is considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas).

1650

6.9.1650

The Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of the two administrative boards of Harvard, is established. It is the first legal corporation in the Americas.

1690

2.3.1690

The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.

9.25.1690

''Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick'', the first newspaper to appear in the Americas, is published for the first and only time.