| 1536 | Spaniards begin to settle in California and in the Southwest. |
| 1565 | Spaniards establish St. Augustine, oldest city in the United States. |
| 1607 | English establish Jamestown, the oldest English settlement in North America. |
| 1619 | Negroes are first brought in as slaves. |
| 1620 | English Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock. |
| 1624 | Walloons, from Netherlands, settle Fort Orange, now Albany, New York. |
| 1626 | Netherlanders establish New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. |
| 1628 | Persecuted Protestants establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony. |
| 1634 | Lord Baltimore and a group of English Catholics arrive in Maryland. |
| 1636 | Roger Williams and his followers establish Rhode Island. |
| 1636 | Connecticut is founded by Thomas Hooker and his religious group. |
| 1638 | Swedes and Finns settle along the Delaware River. |
| 1639 | John Mason and his followers come to New Hampshire. |
| 1654 | Twenty-three Portuguese Jews land at New Amsterdam from Brazil. |
| 1662 | Huguenots settle in Massachusetts on the present site of Oxford. |
| 1663 | English nobles, with grant from Charles II, establish North Carolina. |
| 1664 | English capture New Amsterdam and rename it New York. |
| 1664 | Berkeley, Carteret, and others establish New Jersey. |
| 1670 | English make first permanent settlement in South Carolina. |
| 1670 | French fur traders and missionaries come to the Mississippi Valley. |
| 1679 | French Huguenots settle in South Carolina. |
| 1681 | The Quakers, led by William Penn, settle Pennsylvania. |
| 1682 | The first Germans come to Pennsylvania. |
| 1690 | About 200 Scotch-Irish settle in Maryland. |
| 1693 | English help to settle 600 German-Swiss in North Carolina. |
| 1699 | The Acadians come to Louisiana and reach as far as Biloxi in present-day Mississippi. |
| 1700 | The Scotch-Irish settle along the frontiers. |
| 1710 | First German Protestants arrive in New York. |
| 1719 | Acadians establish New Orleans, Louisiana. |
| 1720 | Between 1720 and 1750, 60,000 Germans come to Pennsylvania. |
| 1732 | Oglethorpe founds Georgia. |
| 1733 | German Lutherans, Italian Protestants from Piedmont, Scots, Swiss, Portuguese Jews, and English arrive in Georgia. |
| 1737 | Irish laborers come to South Carolina. |
| 1749 | About 600 Scots settle near Fayetteville, North Carolina. |
| 1750 | Over 4,300 Germans and 1,000 English and Irish arrive in Pennsylvania. |
| 1790 | Between 1790 and 1820, around 234,000 newcomers arrive. |
| 1807 | Slave trade is forbidden. |
| 1817 | 20,000 people come from Europe. |
| 1819 | First United States Passenger Act, marking beginning of systematic immigration statistics. |
| 1842 | Annual immigration first reaches 100,000. |
| 1847 | Annual immigration passes 200,000. |
| 1845 | Large German influx begins as a result of political unrest. |
| 1847 | Irish begin to come in large numbers because of famine and political oppression. |
| 1851 | Annual immigration passes 300,000. |
| 1853 | About 13,000 Chinese laborers arrive to work in the California gold mines. |
| 1855 | Castle Garden, New York, established as principal immigrant station. |
| 1860 | Slavs and southern Europeans begin to arrive. |
| 1870 | More than 15,000 Chinese arrive to work on the railroads. |
| 1880 | Because of militarism and overpopulation in Germany, Germans again begin to arrive in large numbers. |
| 1880 | Between 1880 and 1900, large numbers of Scandinavians arrive because introduction of machinery takes place of men on Scandinavian farms. |
| 1881 | For next 15 years, an average of nearly 500,000 arrive each year. |
| 1882 | Idiots, lunatics, and persons likely to become public charges excluded. |
| 1890 | For next 30 years, Italians, Austrians, Hungarians, and Slavs pour into United States to supply demand for unskilled labor. |
| 1890 | Ellis Island replaces Castle Garden as chief immigrant station. |
| 1891 | More than 1,000 Japanese arrive. |
| 1891 | The office of Superintendent of Immigration is established in the Treasury Department. |
| 1900 | More than 12,000 Japanese arrive. |
| 1900 | Between 1900 and 1914, more than 3,000,000 Italians and about 6,000,000 people from Slavic countries enter. |
| 1905 | Annual immigration first exceeds 1,000,000. |
| 1907 | Immigration reaches all-time peak of 1,285,349. |
| 1907 | Immigration Commission is set up. |
| 1917 | During World War and afterwards thousands of Mexicans cross the border. |
| 1919 | Flow of immigrants from Europe again gets under way. |
| 1921 | Temporary Quota Law, restricting immigration. |
| 1924 | Permanent Quota Law, restricting immigration to 150,000 annually. |
| 1938 | Annual immigration drops to about 70,000. |
