Colonial Times

This post covers the age of exploration

1450	Prince Henry the Navigator builds school for sailors.
1453	Turkish Empire cuts off the land route for spices from Asia to Europe. Search for sea route begins.
1487	Bartholomeu Dias discovers the southern tip of Africa.
1492	Columbus sails to the New World.
1497	John Cabot discovers Newfoundland while he searches for the Northwest Passage.
1502	Amerigo Vespucci returns from his explorations of the New World. American continents named after him by German mapmaker.
1513	Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean. Juan Ponce de Leon searches for the Fountain of Youth in Florida.
1519 - 1522	Ferdinand Magellan and his crew sail around the world.
1521	Hernando Cortez defeats the Aztec Empire.
1533	Francisco Pizarro defeats the Inca Empire.
1534	Jacques Cartier discovers the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes.
1539 - 1542	Hernando De Soto explores the southeastern United States.
1540	Francisco Vasquez de Coronado explores the southwestern United States and discovers the Grand Canyon.
1577	Sir Francis Drake becomes the first Englishman to sail around the world.
1673	Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explore the Mississippi River.
1682	Rene-Robert de La Salle explores the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

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source http://library.thinkquest.org/J002678F/timeline.htm