1601

• Sir Walter Raleigh is imprisoned in the Tower of London for a plot against King James I.

1602

• Captain Bartholomew Gosnold is the first Englishman to land on the New England coast.

1603

• Roger Williams, the future founder of Rhode Island, is born.

1606

• Virginia Company of London is granted a Royal Charter to settle in the New World.

1607

• Jamestown is founded under the patent of the London Company.
• Captain John Smith meets Pocahontas.

1608

• Captain John Smith writes A True Relation of Such Occurences and Accidents of Noate(sic) as Hath Hapned(sic) in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Collony(sic).

1609

• Henry Hudson explores the Delaware Bay and Hudson River.

1610

• Thomas West, Lord Delaware, was made Governor of Virginia.
• Henry Hudson discovers Hudson Bay.

1611

• Henry Hudson dies.

1612

• Captain John Smith writes A Map of Virginia.
• The Dutch use Manhattan as a fur trading center.
• Tobacco planted for the first time by English colonists in Virginia.

1613

• English Colonists in Virginia destroy the French settlements at Port Royal, Nova Scotia.

1614

• Sir Walter Raleigh writes The History of the World.
• Pocahontas marries John Rolfe.

1616

• Sir Walter Raleigh released from the Tower of London.
• John Rolfe and Pocahontas travel to England.
• William Baffin discovers Baffin Bay while searching for a Northwest passage.
• Captain John Smith writes A Description of New England.
• A smallpox epidemic decimates the New England Native American population.

1617

• Sir Walter Raleigh sets sail for Guiana.
• Pocahontas dies.

1618

• Sir Walter Raleigh returns to England and is executed.

1619

• The first representative colonial assembly, the House of Burgesses, was formed in Virginia.
• First slaves in North America.

1620

• Mayflower Compact was signed.
• Plymouth Colony founded in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• John Carver was named the first governor of Plymouth Colony.

1621

• Sir Francis Wyatt becomes the new governor of Virginia.
• English attempt to colonize Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
• John Carver dies.
• The Dutch West Indies Company is chartered.

1622

• William Bradford became the governor of Plymouth Colony.

1623

• New Netherlands is organized in America.
• First English settlement in New Hampshire is founded by David Thomas.

1624

• Virginia Company's charter is revoked.
• Virginia becomes a Crown Colony.
• Sir Francis Wyatt remains Governor of Virginia.
• George Fox is born who will become the founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers).
• Captain John Smith writes A General Historie(sic) of Virginia, the Summer Isles and New England.
• The Dutch settle in New Amsterdam.

1625

• King James I dies and is succeeded by Charles I.