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: 1810s In The United States
Famous quotes containing the word century:
“But I would emphasize again that social and economic solutions, as such, will not avail to satisfy the aspirations of the people unless they conform with the traditions of our race, deeply grooved in their sentiments through a century and a half of struggle for ideals of life that are rooted in religion and fed from purely spiritual springs.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)