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Go to TIMELINE: 1821 to present

17,000 BP (before the present)	The last glacier, known as the Wisconsin glaciation, begins to recede.
11,000 BP	Maine is free of the glacier, except for a few ice caps in the north.
10,500 BP	Maine's first human population arrives: the Paleo-Indians.
10,000 BP - 7500 BP	The Paleo-Indian population dies out or diminishes.
7500 BP - 6000 BP	Prehistoric Maine's population increases. Sea levels rise; the Atlantic Ocean reaches present day Millinocket.
6000 BP - 3000 BP	Prehistoric Maine's population continues to increase. "Red Paint" burial sites date from this time.
4700 BP (2700 BC)	The first pyramids are built in Egypt.
3000 BP to 500 BP	Maine Indians discover how to make ceramic pottery. The first wigwam evidence in Maine dates from this period.
2550 BP (551 BC)	Confucius is born in China.
1000-1100 AD	Leif Eriksson and the Norsemen explore North America, possibly the coast of Maine.
1337 - 1453 AD	France and England battle over territory in the Hundred Years War.
1492 (ca. 500 BP)	Christopher Columbus arrives in the West Indies.
1497	John Cabot plies the Grand Banks off of Newfoundland and records the abundance of codfish he found there.
1524	Giovanni da Verrazzano names Maine "the Land of the Bad People."
1534	Henry VIII dissents with Catholic Church, and declares himself Head of the Church of England.
1559	David Ingram tells lies to the English public about the wealthy land of Norumbega.
1564	William Shakespeare is born.
1604 -5	Samuel de Champlain charts the Maine coast and tries to establish a permanent settlement on St. Croix Island.
1605	George Weymouth explores the mouth of the Kennebec River, and captures five Indians (probably Etchemins.)
1607	George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert try to establish an English settlement, known as the Popham Colony, at the mouth of the Kennebec River. French colonists at St. Croix Island relocate to Port Royal, Nova Scotia. Jamestown, Virginia is founded. Souriquois Indians attack Almouchaquois Indians on the Saco River.
1608	George Popham dies, Raleigh Gilbert returns to England, and the fledging Popham Colony is abandoned.
1610	Jamestown begins sending fishing vessels to the Gulf of Maine.
1613	Father Biard, a French Jesuit priest, attempts to establish a settlement at Somes Sound, on Mount Desert Island. English captain Samuel Argall destroys the French settlements at Somes Sound, Port Royal, and St. Croix Island.
1614	John Smith visits Maine, writes his Description of New England, which encourages Englishmen to settle in Maine.
1615	Bashaba, a great western Etchemin chief, is killed by Micmacs and other eastern Etchemin tribes.
1616-1619	The "Great Dying": over 75% of western Maine's Native Americans (probably) die of European diseases.
1620	The Pilgrims establish Plymouth colony.
1621	King James I signs a charter that grants most of the land that is Maine today to the Council for New England, a group of English noblemen who plan to settle the area.
1625	A trading post at Pejepscot is operating.
1628	Trading posts at Cushnoc (Augusta) and Richmond Island are operating.
1630	The Massachusetts Bay Colony is established. Settlements at York, Cape Porpus, and Saco are established.
1631	A settlement at Kittery is established.
1634	One of earliest known sawmills in America is built on the Piscataqua River.
1636	Maine's first court convenes at Saco.
1640	An Abenaki chief, is baptized by French Jesuits and named Jean Baptiste.
1642	Parliament rebels against King Charles I in the English Civil War. A group of Mohawk Indians raid western Maine Indian territory.
1652	The Massachusetts Bay Colony annexes southwestern Maine.
1661	Abenaki Indians kill 30 Mohawks who attempt to coerce their submission to the Iroquois Nation.
1662	The Mohawks retaliate, attacking Etchemin on the Penobscot River killing or capturing nearly 100.
1671	Abenaki and Mohawk tribes make a tentative peace. French regain control of Eastern Maine; St.-Castine arrives.
1677	Massachusetts buys the deed to Maine.
1675-1678	Western Maine Indians make their first raids on English settlements in Maine during King Philip's War, later joined by more easterly tribes.
1688 - 1699	King William's War.
1703 - 1713	Queen Anne's War.
1722 - 1727	Dummer's War or Lovewell's War.
1740	Maine's European population reaches 12,000.
1744 - 1749	King George's War.
1745	Sir William Pepperell, of Kittery, captures Louisbourg for the British.
1752	Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod.
1754 – 1763	The French and Indian or Seven Years' War; most Maine Indians are forced north to Canada or into eastern Maine.
1755	Acadians disperse after the British force them off their land. Some travel north to the St. John Valley.
1759	Sally Sayward Barrell is born in York; later she becomes known as Madam Wood, Maine's first female novelist. Quebec falls to the British.
1764	The spinning jenny is invented.
1765	Maine's European population swells to 23,000.
1766	A mob in Falmouth seizes and burns tax stamps newly arrived from England.
1769	The steam engine is patented.
1770	Ludwig Van Beethoven is born.
1773	The Boston Tea Party: Boston patriots protest British tax laws by dumping British East India Co. tea into Boston Harbor.
1774	The "York Tea Party."
1775	Maine's population reaches 47,000 settlers. Patriots fight the British in the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The British ship Margaretta is captured by Machias residents. British Captain Mowatt burns Falmouth, Maine (present-day Portland). Benedict Arnold marches 1000 men up the Kennebec River to Quebec; his army is defeated.
1776	The Declaration of Independence is written and approved.
1779	British forces occupy Castine and take control of eastern Maine. The Penobscot Expedition against the British at Castine is a military disaster.
1780	The Massachusetts Constitution is written.
1783	Slavery is abolished in Massachusetts (and Maine).
1784	Maine's population rises to 56,000.
1785	Maine's first newspaper, The Falmouth Gazette and Weekly Advertiser, is first printed.
1786	Portland (previously Falmouth) is incorporated.
1787	The U.S. Constitution is written.
1789	The French Revolution begins.
1791	Academies in Berwick and Hallowell are established. The First Bank of the United States opens in Philadelphia.
1793	Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, reviving slave plantations in the South.
1794	Passamaquoddy Indians give up their claim to all but 23,000 acres of Maine land in a treaty with Massachusetts.
1796	Penobscot Indians give up 190,000 acres of their land in a treaty with Massachusetts.
1799	The first Maine bank opens in Portland.
1800	Maine's population rises to 150,000.
1801	Dorothea Dix is born in Hampden, Maine.
1802	Bowdoin College is established in Brunswick.
1804	Napoleon declares himself emperor of France.
1807	President Thomas Jefferson sets an embargo on foreign trade. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is born in Portland.
1809	Settlers in Malta (present-day Winsor) rise up against agents of land proprietors in the "Malta War." Hannibal Hamlin is born in Paris, Maine.
1810	Maine's population rises to 230,000. Eben Bamford of Livermore patents the window sash.
1812	The War of 1812 begins.
1813	The British ship Enterprise is defeated by the U.S. ship Boxer off the Maine coast.
1814	The British occupy Castine again for a year.
1818	The Maine Literary and Theological Institute in Waterville (now Colby College) opens its doors to its first students.
1819	The Maine Constitutional Convention drafts the Maine Constitution. John Harrison Hall of Portland patents the breach-loading rifle.
1820	Congress passes the Missouri Compromise. Maine enters the Union as the 23rd state. Maine's population is 300,000. William King is elected first state governor. Portland is chosen as the state capital. Hallowell quarries sell the granite that will build Boston's Quincy Market.