1565 The Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded Saint Augustine. This Florida city is the oldest permanent settlement established by Europeans in what is now the United States.
1607About 100 colonists founded Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.
1612Colonial leader John Rolfe became the first colonist to cultivate tobacco. By about 1614, tobacco had become an important cash crop for the Jamestown settlement.
1614Rolfe and Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian leader Powhatan, were married. The event was marked by a truce between the colonists and the Indians.
1619The first black Africans brought to the North American mainland came to Jamestown as indentured servants.
1620ThePilgrims founded Plymouth Colony, the second permanent English settlement in North America.
1624The Dutch established the settlement of New Netherland.