11,000 BCE • Spear Thrower
10,000 BCE Hunters use a weapon called an atlatl, or• Healers Aleut healers, both men and spear thrower, to hunt. It works like that women, know quite a bit about cup-on-a-stick you might use to chuck plants to heal sick people, your dog’s tennis ball farther. It’s using possibly and they even perform some the world’s first mechanical invention. surgical procedures. They also carry out autopsies on dead people to learn about anatomy. 5500 BCE • Volcano to Crater
A volcano is erupting in the Cascade Mountains in what will later be southern Oregon. The eruption will leave an immense hole, which will form the clear, intensely blue Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States.
About 3000 BCE • Bow and Arrow A group of cultures that modern archeologists call the Arctic Small Tool Tradition lives in the Arctic— what is today Greenland, northern Canada, and Alaska. They may be the earliest North Americans to use the bow and arrow for hunting.
8500 BCE • Hunter-Gatherers On the plains and prairies of North America, people live in small family groups. They gather wild plants and hunt on foot. They work together to drive big game such as elk and bison over cliffs. They use every part of the bison—meat for food; skin for tepee walls, blankets, and clothing; and horn and bone for tools.
About 500 BCE • Whale Hunting People of the far north have developed the skill of hunting whales from an open boat. They use every part of the whale, including the bones, which they use to make tools.
About 3500 BCE–1540 CE • Mound Builders
6000 BCE • Tar Pits
Groups of people we call mound builders live scattered across what is today the United States and Canada. Their giant mounds are made of earth.
For the past 32,000 years, many animals (including mammoths and mastodons) have gotten trapped in sticky pools of oozing 11,000 BCE • Spearcrude Thrower oil in what today are called Lacalled Brea Pits in the city of Los Angeles, Hunters the use a weapon an atlatl,Tar or California. The remains of these animals will spear thrower, to hunt. It works like that help scientists understand North America’s cup-on-a-stick you might use to chuck distant past. your dog’s tennis ball farther. It’s possibly
Around 300 BCE • Serpent Mound
the world’s first mechanical invention.
A mound in what will be Ohio is shaped like a snake with a curved tail. It’s what scholars will call an effigy mound—a huge pile of earth in the shape of an animal. The Serpent Mound probably has spiritual significance for the people of the Adena culture. It’s about a quarter of a mile (411 m) long.
8000 BCE • Basket Weaving
5500 BCE • Volcano to Crater A volcano is erupting in the Cascade Mountains in what will later be southern Oregon. The eruption will leave an immense hole, which will form the clear, intensely blue Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States.
People weave baskets for gathering and transporting food.
Early North Americans gather and eat a kind of wild potato in what is now the midwestern part of the United States, and probably elsewhere, too.
For the past 32,000 years, many animals Humans Spread Out (including mammoths and mastodons) have gotten trappedNorth in sticky pools of America is full of animals—some of them oozing crude oil in what today are called huge by today’s standards. There are 6-ton (5-t) the La Brea Tar Pits inmastodons, the city of Los Angeles, 10-foot- (3-m-) tall sloths, and saberCalifornia. The remains of these animals will toothed cats with teeth the size of bananas. There help scientists understand North America’s are also tiny prehistoric horses. But about 800085BCE, 00 BCE • distant past.
1200–400 BCE • Olmec People 9000 BCE • Clovis People
The Olmec build palaces and cities along the eastern coast of what today is Mexico. They carve 8-ton (7-t) heads out of stone that has to be brought overland from hundreds of miles away.
transporting food.
North America is full of animals—some of them huge by today’s standards. There are 6-ton (5-t) mastodons, 10-foot- (3-m-) tall sloths, and sabertoothed cats with teeth the size of bananas. There are also tiny prehistoric horses. But about 8000 BCE, many of these animals go extinct, due in part to changing temperatures at the end of an ice age. By 5000 BCE, much of North America is populated by groups of people who find food by hunting animals such as deer, rabbit, woolly mammoth, and bison, and by gathering fruits, nuts, seeds, and other wild plants.
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of Earth’s species, including all of the dinosaurs except birds, to go extinct.
900–400 BCE • Writing The Olmec may be the earliest North American civilization to have a written language. They are thought to have engraved symbols into blocks of stone.
Clovis people are named
for a site in Clovis, New Chicxulub Crater many of these animals go extinct, due in part to About 3000 BCE • Mexico, where artifacts The first people who live on what will changing temperatures at the end of an ice age. Ancient Corn Farming will be discovered. They be called the Yucatan peninsula By 5000 BCE, much of North America is populated Farmers in what is today central Mexico and the make wickedly sharp of Mexico probably don’t notice, but there American Southwest breed corn by selecting the 8000 BCEof by groups • people who find food by hunting is a huge crater off the coast. It marks stone spearheads and biggest seeds from a wild grass called teosinte. Basketsuch Weaving as deer, rabbit, woolly mammoth, the spot where 66.5 million years ago arrow points. animals They dry and grind the grain to make cornmeal. People weave baskets and bison, and by gathering fruits, nuts, seeds, a piece of an asteroid slammed into Soon they will also grow beans and squash. for gathering and Earth, causing about three-quarters and other wild plants. Farming makes it possible for a lot of people to
Humans Spread Out
The first be calle of M is
9000 BCE • Wild Potatoes
6000 BCE • Tar Pits
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live in one place and leads to the development of villages and, later, cities.
9500 BCE • Saber-Toothed Cats Go Extinct
Saber-toothed cats have roamed North America for millions of years. They are about the size of modern-day lions. Their upper canine teeth are sharp as knives and can be eight inches (20 cm) long. By about 9500 BCE they are extinct.
Before 5000 BCE
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500 BCE–500 CE • Arawaks
Arawak people migrate from South America to islands in the Caribbean and soon become the dominant group there. They farm, trade, make pottery, and produce exotic jewelry. Animals appear on pottery, and people are buried with their dogs.
9000 BCE • Clovis People Clovis people are named for a site in Clovis, New Mexico, where artifacts will be discovered. They make wickedly sharp stone spearheads and arrow points.
9500 BCE • Saber-Toothed Cats Go Extinct Saber-toothed cats have roamed North America for millions of years. They are about the size of modern-day lions. Their upper canine teeth are sharp as knives and can be eight inches (20 cm) long. By about 9500 BCE they are extinct.
Before 5000 BCE
5000 BCE • First Caribbeans The first people to reach the Caribbean arrive by boat from South America to settle in what will be Trinidad.
5000 BCE
500 BCE
1 CE
1534 • The French Arrive 1497 • The British Arrive
Looking for gold, spices, and a route to Asia, Frenchman Jacques Cartier and his men arrive in northeast North America and claim it for France. When Cartier and his crew return a year later, indigenous people cure them of scurvy using spruce beer. Cartier names Canada after kanata, the Huron-Wendat word for village.
John Cabot (or Giovanni Caboto, as he is known in Italy), an Italian sailing for England, lands somewhere along the northeast coast of North America. Back in England, his crew tells of huge and plentiful codfish. European fishermen start arriving in droves.
Early 1600s • Beaver Furs
1570 • Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy
French traders settle along the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers in Canada and down the Mississippi. They trade with indigenous hunters, exchanging European goods for beaver skins. The pelts make the best hats, and nearly everyone in Europe wears a hat.
The Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations unite in what is often called the oldest participatory democracy in the world. The Tuscarora Nation will join in 1722.
1608 • Québec Samuel de Champlain founds the settlement of Québec on the Saint Lawrence River, well-situated for trade with indigenous nations. It will become the capital of the colony of New France.
1610–1611 • Mutiny in the Bay 1576 • Fools’ Gold
Early 1500s • Trade
1513 • Calusa Defeat the Spanish The Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León lands in a place Europeans have never been before and calls it Florida, which means “flowery.” The visit doesn’t last long, though. The Calusa attack his ships. When he comes back in 1521 to start a colony, the Calusa again drive off his fleet, this time fatally wounding him, probably with a poison arrow.
Europeans set up fishing stations on the North Atlantic coast of North America. Some indigenous nations, including the Mi’kmaq and Huron-Wendat, make treaties with the newcomers that allow them to trade animal furs and fresh meat for European products such as copper pots, wool blankets, and firearms. They also teach Europeans how to make useful tools such as canoes and snowshoes.
Martin Frobisher, a pirate who works for English merchants, discovers a bay in northeastern Canada. On a second voyage, he loads up his ship with 200 tons (181 t) of a glittery rock that he thinks is gold. It turns out to be a big load of worthless iron pyrite.
1585–1590 • A Colony Vanishes English colonists settle on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is today North Carolina, but vanish in less than five years. Nobody knows what happened to them.
1612 • Tobacco
1607 • Jamestown Founded An all-male English group lands in what they call Virginia and names its new settlement Jamestown. They arrive during a severe, prolonged drought. Relations with the local Powhatan are uneasy. In 1609, more colonists arrive, including some women and children. Food is scarce, and “the starving time” sets in for both the colonists and the Powhatan.
1565 • St. Augustine The Spanish establish the first permanent European settlement in what is now the United States. It is St. Augustine, in Florida.
1527 • Mustafa Zemmouri An enslaved African-Muslim man named Mustafa Zemmouri, also known as Estevanico, is shipwrecked along with two Spaniards. They wander what is today the southwest United States and Mexico for eight years, learning many indigenous customs. A fourth survivor joins them, and they eventually reach Spanish settlements. Zemmouri is the first African person to explore North America.
1609 • Dutch Claim Land Englishman Henry Hudson is searching for a shorter route to Asia. While sailing for the Dutch, he finds what will one day be New York Harbor and sails up a river that will later be named after him. But he doesn’t find a route to Asia. He claims land for the Netherlands.
Now sailing for the English, Hudson explores what will be called the Hudson Bay. But he is bossy and reckless, and his crew mutinies. He is set adrift in a small boat with eight others and never heard from again.
1539–1542 • Spanish Exploration
After a few years of misery, a Jamestown colonist named John Rolfe (who in 1614 will marry the Powhatan woman known as Pocahontas) discovers that a Caribbean variety of tobacco grows well in Virginia soil. A few years later, the Jamestown colonists begin importing enslaved African people to work the tobacco fields.
1607 • Santa Fe
Hernando de Soto leads an expedition from Florida all the way to Texas. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo explores the West Coast. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado leads a huge expedition from what will be Arizona to Kansas. They all want gold but don’t find it. Instead they claim vast areas for Spain, even though these areas are already populated by indigenous nations.
The city of Santa Fe is founded as the capital of New Mexico, a territory of New Spain. It will go on to be the capital of the U.S. state of the same name and the oldest capital city in the country.
1519 • Spanish Defeat the Aztec Spaniard Hernan Cortés invades the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán. With powerful weapons and help from local enemies of the Aztec, he takes the city. His men steal treasure and destroy monuments. The Aztec leader, Moctezuma II, is killed. The era of Spanish rule begins in this part of the world.
1619 • Importing Wives British investors, hoping to keep the Virginia colony going, send a boatload of English women across the ocean. The women can travel for free but have to marry when they arrive. Many of them will die of disease, but a small number will survive and even become wealthy.
1595 • Spanish Defeat British Britain and Spain have been at war with one another all over the world, including in Spain’s Caribbean colonies. When the British try to invade San Juan, Puerto Rico, they are defeated by Spanish forces. The British abandon plans to establish colonies in the Caribbean. For now.
1500s • Pirates Pirate ships with multinational crews prowl the Caribbean, preying on Spanish ships carrying gold and silver. Some pirates base themselves on Hispaniola and raise cattle when not pirating. Eventually they will be known as “buccaneers” because they cure the cattle meat in wooden contraptions called boucans.
1500
1550s • Enslaved Africans The Spanish bring enslaved Africans to the Caribbean to replace Taíno workers who have died, mostly of European diseases.
1540
1580
1585
1600
1615
1939–1945 • World War II
1860–1960s • Indian Residential Schools In Canada and the U.S., indigenous children are separated from their families and forced to attend residential schools, far from their homes, reserves, and reservations. The children are forbidden from speaking their languages and from wearing their traditional clothing. The U.S. schools and most of those in Canada will close in the 1960s, though the Canadian system won’t fully end until 1996.
1906 • Arctic Exploration Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first explorer to cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific by way of northern Canada. He reaches Nome, Alaska. On the way, he learns Arctic survival skills from the Inuit. Later he will use these skills to become the first to reach the South Pole.
1903 • Airplanes
1942 • Japanese Incarceration
1920s • Road Trip
Henry Ford introduces the Model T, a relatively inexpensive and high quality gasoline-powered car. His assembly-line method of manufacturing autos has made them affordable for the first time.
Filling stations, motels, and restaurants multiply, to meet the needs of so many motorists.
Between 1910 and 1970, as many as 6 million African Americans move from the rural South to cities in the North, Midwest, and West in search of a life free of harsh segregation laws that keep whites and blacks separate.
A major earthquake strikes the city of San Francisco, California, followed by a massive fire that sweeps through the city. As many as 3,000 people are killed, and 200,000 are left homeless.
1914–1918 • World War I World War I, at the time called the Great War, breaks out in Europe. Canada, still part of the British Empire, sends soldiers right away. Eventually 32 countries enter the war, including the U.S., Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and other Caribbean colonies of the British Empire.
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill ordering the construction of superhighways across the country. Suburbs—neighborhoods surrounding cities—appear. Highways help McDonald’s expand from nine restaurants in 1955 to over 3,000 in 1975. Other fast-food restaurants also spread rapidly.
1929–1939 • Great Depression Stock markets in New York, Toronto, and Montréal all crash, along with others around the world. Droughts occur and farms fail, leading to what becomes known as the Great Depression. Millions can’t find jobs and are homeless across North America.
1950s and 1960s • Civil Rights Movement Through mostly peaceful protest, and led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., African Americans demand equality, including voting rights and the end of segregation (the policy of separating whites and blacks in public places, including schools, restaurants, and bathrooms).
1941 • Mount Rushmore
1920s–1930s • Harlem Renaissance
1906 • San Francisco Earthquake
1956 • Superhighways and Fast Food
During the war, the U.S. and Canada consider people of Japanese heritage potential spies. Many are forced from their homes to camps, where they live out the war behind barbed wire and under armed guard.
1910–1970 • The Great Migration
1908 • Model T Ford
At Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright brothers make their first successful flight in a motorized aircraft.
World War II is fought mostly overseas, between the Axis (Nazi Germany, Japan, and Italy) and the Allies (led by Britain, France, and the Soviet Union). Canada joins the Allies in 1939 to support Britain; the U.S. joins in 1941 after Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in Hawaii; and Mexico joins in 1942, when Germany attacks its oil ships in the Gulf of Mexico.
The faces of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln are carved into the mountains of the Black Hills of South Dakota. This land, sacred to the Lakota, was seized by the U.S. government in the 1870s.
After many African Americans relocate north, an artistic and intellectual movement emerges. Later known as the Harlem Renaissance because it is centered in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, the movement attracts the attention of the world with first-rate work by black writers, artists, and musicians.
1969 • Moon Walk American astronaut Neil Armstrong is the first human to walk on the moon. The U.S. and the Soviet Union have been competing for firsts in space since the 1950s.
1930s • Dust Bowl Dust storms carry off topsoil, ruining small farms in the U.S. Great Plains and Canadian Prairies. As many as 250,000 people from farming families pack up their cars and head west.
1924 • Indigenous Citizenship All indigenous people in the U.S. are recognized as citizens for the first time. Gradually, state by state, they are guaranteed the right to vote.
1952–1973 • Cold War After World War II ends, two superpowers emerge: the U.S. and the Soviet Union (later Russia). Both have nuclear weapons. Although the two superpowers don’t fight one another directly, a “cold war” begins. Wars break out around the world, and often one side is supported by the Soviet Union and the other by the U.S. This happens in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
1920s • Mexican Renaissance 1910–1921 • Mexican Revolution
1902 • Volcano Mount Pelée erupts on the Caribbean island of Martinique. It is the worst volcanic disaster of the century. In less than 60 seconds, it destroys the large city of Saint-Pierre. As many as 30,000 people die.
Mexico is in the midst of a long and bloody revolution. As a result, it will remain neutral in the Great War, which starts in 1914. When the revolution is finally over, Mexicans see an end to a 30-year dictatorship and the establishment of a constitutional republic.
There’s a newfound pride in Mexico’s past. The government hires artists like Diego Rivera to paint murals with scenes that celebrate the country’s early history. Frida Kahlo emerges as one of the world’s greatest surrealist painters.
1926 • Residential Schools, Mexican Style
1943–1952 • The Birth of a Volcano Starting as a swelling of the ground on Dionisio Pulido’s farm in Mexico, a new volcano called Parícutin forms. It erupts for nine years.
Mexico creates Indian boarding schools, but they mostly support indigenous traditions rather than trying to erase them.
1934–1939 • Workers’ Rights
1962 • Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Great Depression, workers in the Caribbean’s British colonies rebel against the government, demanding better pay, fair treatment, and the right to vote.
The U.S. and Soviet Union nearly start a nuclear war when the U.S. discovers that the Soviet Union has installed nuclear missiles in Cuba. The disaster is avoided when the Soviets agree to remove the missiles in exchange for the U.S. removing its missiles from Turkey, which borders the Soviet Union.
Early 1900s • Banana Wars From so-called “peacekeeping missions” to protecting America’s interests, U.S. marines wage campaigns in a number of countries in the Caribbean and Central America. Because some of these “interests” include plantations owned by American fruit companies, these mini conflicts are known as the “Banana Wars.”
1902
1914
1926
1929
1961 • Oil Discovery A Mexican fisherman named Rudesindo Cantarell notices a black oily patch while fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. It turns out to be one of the largest offshore oil fields ever found.
1949
1960s • Independence Many of the island nations of the Caribbean gain their independence. More will do so in the 1970s.
1969
A richly illustrated, fold-out graphic history of the United States, Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean Created in conjunction with experts at the Smithsonian Institution The first time the vast and incredibly diverse history of the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean has been presented as one single multi-faceted story, putting each individual history in context Unique fold-out format invites kids to spread out on the floor and explore Graphic novel-style illustrations color-coded by geographical area lead readers through the rich and often surprising history of our continent New York Times bestselling author will promote extensively via interviews and events Confirmed author appearances at nErDCamp (Michigan, July); Princeton Children’s Book Festival (September); Plum Creek Festival (Nebraska, September); Chappaqua Book Festival (New York, October), National Council for Teachers of English (Baltimore, November)
Radio tour on publication Social media campaign on publication Widespread review coverage anticipated
Author: Sarah Albee Illustrator: William Exley Format: Hardcover Price: US$19.99/CAN$26.95 Extent: 22 pages Size: 9.8 x 11.6 inches Pub date: October 1, 2019 Ages: 8–14 years ISBN: 9781999967925
BISAC codes JNF025170 JUVENILE NONFICTION / History / United States / General JNF025080 JUVENILE NONFICTION / History / Canada / General JNF025050 JUVENILE NONFICTION / History / Exploration & Discovery
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