See a timeline of colonial settlement in North America.

An overview of early American settlement, beginning with the London Company's expedition to Virginia. Source includes a number of citations for further reading.

The revolution did not happen overnight, but was a culmination of centuries of settlement, policies, and war in North America. This timeline provides key, fascinating events from the 1600s through the Revolution in a smooth, easy-to-read interface.

Want to see how Wall Street (and New York City as a whole) has changed over time? Use this timeline and map to see Manhattan today overlaid with the precise boundaries of early land grants to the Dutch in the 1600s. Scroll through the progress of city building through the first century of European settlement there.

This National Archives timeline walks through the Declaration’s creation step by step—from early calls for independence to drafting, approval, and final signatures—highlighting the key moments that led to the Colonies’ break from Britain.

Maintained by the Wisconsin Historical Society, the American Journeys collection contains more than 18,000 pages of primary source documents—journals, letters, maps, and accounts written between roughly 1000 CE and the early 1800s. These include eyewitness records of the Norse arrival in North America, Spanish conquistador expeditions, and the Lewis and Clark journey. Browse this list of highlights where pages from the original texts are specified (clicking a link opens a PDF).

Need a visual on how prevalent slavery was in the US? Scroll through this interactive map and timeline based on census data from 1790 to 1860.

Compiled by the Library of Congress, this archive walks through important events in US history through civil rights era, while providing primary sources to explore.

Originally founded as New Amsterdam, this interactive timeline lists out and provides deep dives on the major events that shaped New York City as it became America's foremost cultural and economic hub.

Early peoples migrated to the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge or coastal routes, spreading across the continent as hunter-gatherers. Archaeological sites in present-day New Mexico containing stone tools and animal bones mark some of the earliest confirmed evidence of human life in North America.

By 1621, Native Americans had been interacting with European explorers along the coasts for hundreds of years. European adventurers, including Giovanni da Verrazzano, mapped the coastline as early as 1524, as this timeline from the National Museum of the American Indian explains.

Around 8500-7900 B.C.E., many Indigenous groups began settling near rivers and lakes to harvest fish and hunt bison, moving away from a fully nomadic lifestyle. This shift toward semipermanent communities marks one of the earliest signs of organized settlement in North America.

The history of humanity is a long, winding road, and the history of everything else is even more complex and interwoven. This interactive timeline takes users through the history of the world and includes links to related videos, blurbs, and events. Each event in history is represented by a dot, providing users with a glittering horizon filled with moments of intrigue and impact.

Jazz began in 19th-century New Orleans, though its roots go back even further. This timeline situates the music's evolution alongside American and world history, offering an illuminating exploration of the genre.

Colonial Williamsburg's timeline situates the act within the local political culture of Virginia: colonists accustomed to taxing themselves through their own representatives in Williamsburg's House of Burgesses were outraged that Parliament could reach into their pockets from across the ocean. The timeline also covers Patrick Henry's proposed "Resolves," which prompted shouts of "treason" from his co-legislators, as well as commemorative objects (buttons, teapots) that followed the repeal.

The United States began regulating immigration soon after it won independence from Great Britain, and the laws since enacted have reflected the politics and migrant flows of the times. Here's a timeline of key immigration laws from 1790 to 2014, according to the Pew Research Center.

This interactive timeline tracks the development of US immigration law, overlaid with time-series data on percentages of the foreign-born population. Explore how each major policy development correlated with immigration levels, revealing the relationship between legislation and demographic change.

This interactive map visualizes Indigenous territories across the world. Users can search by location, language, or tribe to explore the histories, cultures, and present-day communities connected to specific lands.

In 1619, a ship with 20 captives landed at Point Comfort in Virginia, ushering in the era of American slavery. Scroll through this timeline to learn more about slavery in the US and its long lasting effects.

This Library of Congress collection comprises early arguments for Colonial rights, protests against British authority, draft constitutions, and multiple working drafts of the Declaration of Independence. It traces the ideas and language that preceded the final document adopted in 1776.

This collection of 37 maps tells the story of the American Civil War as well as any historical account. See how and where the war began and why, and where the major battles were fought. Discover how the North achieved victory and the many ways the war changed America forever.

Founded in 1636, Harvard University grew alongside English colonization in Wampanoag lands. In this online exhibit, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology highlights Indigenous voices, interpreting objects such as eel traps and grass baskets.

Roughly 12 million people from Africa were forcibly moved to North and South America over two centuries. This map meticulously showcases every ship's origin, destination, timeline, and more, revealing the scale of the Transatlantic slave trade.

This interactive map traces the British Empire from 1450 to today—showing its explosive 19th-century expansion to one-quarter of the world's land and its steady contraction after World War II.

This interactive database provides insight into the trading of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. This database offers maps, articles, timelapses, videos of 3D slave ship models, and searchable databases on enslavers and the enslaved. According...

The panoramic map was a popular cartographic form used to depict U.S. and Canadian cities and towns during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. You can peruse a gallery of almost 2,000 of them in this digital archive from the Library...

This animation shows all recorded slave shipments from the 16th to 19th centuries, conceptualizing not only the slave trade with America but South America as well.

Philadelphia’s Old City hosts one of the largest museums on the American Revolution. This virtual tour allows you to view the museum’s exhibits as if you were there by zooming in on descriptions, browsing images, and learning about artifacts, portraits, and more.

What did people used to think the world looked like? From the beginning of human history to right before the age of exploration, learn how the world maps were created.

This collaboration between the British Museum and Google presents an interactive timeline showing artifacts from five world regions. Go back in time and learn about each item from the museum.

This map and timeline shows the history of the Caribbean Island nation of Haiti and its fight for independence. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and crashed one of his ships, the Santa Maria, along reefs near the island nation...

Using archeological, genetic, and climate data, scientists have pieced together an outline of the human odyssey—the journey that took our species from Africa to all corners of the globe. Experience this 200,000-year migration using an interactive human migration map.

Pollsters track more than just politics: From civil rights to war declarations, go back and see how people felt about major events in the US with this timeline.

Care to hang all of human history on your wall? This data visualization charts 4,000 years of humanity. This "histomap" was originally published in 1931 and sold for $1 per copy of the 5-foot-long chart. It was said to detail the course of...

From our deepest origins in Africa all the way to the Americas, by looking at the fossils and archaeological materials we have been able to trace the path our ancestors took during thee short window of time when we took over the world.

The past few millennia of humankind have produced numerous figures who left their mark on culture and society in their respective era. This interactive timeline from data visualization expert Jan Willem pulls data from Wikipedia to illustrate history's most important people relative to their prominence in modern-day thought.

Immigrant communities experienced varied paths to entry and assimilation in America, depending on their arrival time and context. This Library of Congress resource provides detailed accounts of the experiences of major immigrant groups, drawing on primary sources.

This interactive timeline chronicles the space race from its Cold War origins to the moon landing, highlighting key figures, pivotal moments, and rapid technological advancements. It combines archival photos, video, and links to related material.

The genre begins with the folk music of the Colonial settlers, blending the area’s regional sounds, including gospel, African spirituals, and Anglo-Saxon, Scottish, and Celtic ballads.

From shouting candidates’ names, to hanging chads to electronic scanning, the nature of voting has a long, sometimes bumpy history in the United States. See descriptions and images in chronological order with this digestible timeline.

Wall Street and the southern tip of Manhattan were the first parts of the island to be developed beyond farmland by Dutch and English settlers. It wasn’t long until New York City resembled the city we know today.

Indigenous people lived in the Americas for centuries before the arrival of the first Europeans in the 15th century. Their arrival was disastrous for Native tribes; in addition to being enslaved and losing their land, they had no natural immunity to the diseases brought by colonists. Eventually, up to 95% of the Native American population was killed by illnesses including typhus, chickenpox, and cholera, an event now known as the Great Dying.