16th Century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1513 | Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama. | |
| Spanish conquest of Yucatán: The Spaniard Juan Ponce de León defeated the state of Tlaxcala. | ||
| 1520 | Spanish conquest of Yucatán: Spanish conquest of the Maya civilization began. | |
| 1521 | Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire: Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés destroyed the Aztec Empire. | |
| 1524 | Giovanni da Verrazzano explored the Atlantic coast of North America under French employ. | |
| 1542 | Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi River, strengthening Spanish claims to the interior of North America. | |
| 1565 | Spanish Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine. | |
| 1570 | The Iroquois Confederacy was founded. | |
| 1587 | English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh founded Roanoke Colony. | |
| 1590 | The Roanoke Colony was found deserted. |
Read more about this topic: 2000s In The United States
Famous quotes containing the word century:
“I conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century has been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems with which the human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of traditional beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such investigation.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)