1543

• Pacific Northwest claimed by Spain

1592

• Discovery of Strait of Juan de Fuca claimed by Juan de Fuca

1579

• The Washington coast sighted by Sir Francis Drake and claimed for England

1741-43

• Russian explorers reach Alaskan islands and coast and trade with native peoples for sea otter pelts.

1774

• Juan Perez commands the first Spanish expedition to explore the Northwest Coast and sights the Olympic Mountains.

1775

• Bruno de Hezeta lands on the Washington coast and claims the area for Spain. On his return south, he sees the mouth of the Columbia River.

1778

• James Cook (British) explores and charts the Northwest Coast.

1792

• Robert Gray explores the lower Columbia River.  George Vancouver explores Puget Sound

• George Vancouver (British) explores and names Puget Sound and Lieutenant William Broughton explores the Columbia River up to Point Vancouver.

• Spain establishes the first non-Indian settlement in Washington at Neah Bay.

1805

• Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traverse southern Washington along the Snake and Columbia Rivers.

1810

• The Northwest Company establishes Spokane House, a fur-trading company.

1811

• John Jacob Astor builds Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River as part of his Pacific Fur Company.

1818

• United States and Great Britain agree to joint occupation of the Oregon Territory.

1821

• Judson Bay Company establishes Fort Vancouver.

1823

• Monroe Doctrine warns other countries against attempting occupation in U.S. claimed lands.

1824

• Bureau of Indian Affairs is set up in the War Department.

• Russia sets its southern boundary in the Pacific Northwest at 54 degrees, 40 minutes.

1825

• Hudson's Bay Company establishes forts Vancouver and Colvile on the Columbia.

1834

• The Whitman Party, including Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa and also Reverend H. H. Spalding and his wife Eliza set up mission at the junction of the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Their travel route would become known as the Oregon Trail and used by thousands of future settlers.

1839

• Fr. Pierre-Jean DeSmet arrives among the Flatheads in the Bitterroot Valley. He and his staff would set up a number of Jesuit missions in present day states of Washington and Idaho.

1842

• John C. Fremont leads an Army Topographical Corps' Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. He witnesses an eruption of Mt. St. Helens. His maps of this expedition and one the following year are printed by the government and are widely used by pioneers heading west.

1843

• The Great Migration, a rush of approximately 1,000 pioneers, head out on the Oregon Trail, led by Dr. Marcus Whitman.

1846

• The U.S. and Great Britain divide the Northwest region along the 49th parallel.

1847

• The inhabitants of Whitman Mission are killed by Cayuse Indians.

1848

• Oregon Territory created.

1851

• Setters from the Denny Party find what would become Seattle.

1853

• Washington Territory created.

1854-1856

• A number of treaties are signed between Native Americans living in Washington Territory and the U. S. government.

1855-1858

• Yakima Indian War

1858

• The first Northwest railroad, the Cascade Railroad Company, begins operation in the Columbia River Gorge. The Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad became the second Northwest railroad in 1873, and a large number of local railroads subsequently spring up in the 1880s

1860s

• Gold and silver discovered in the Okanogan.

1862

• Congress passes the Pacific Railroad Act, giving Central Pacific and Union Pacific Companies permission and land grants to begin construction of a transcontinental railroad line stretching along the 42^nd parallel.

1865

• Civil War ends. Union Pacific Railroad heads west.

1871

• Indian Appropriations Act states that Indians are no longer considered sovereign nations but wards of the federal government.

1872

• The Northern Pacific Railroad chooses Tacoma as its western terminus.

• The American-British border dispute in the San Juan islands is settled via arbitration by the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm.

• President Grant establishes the Colville Confederated Tribes through an Executive Order, not a treaty. The reservation lands are reduced later that year following complaints of Colville Valley settlers

1883

• Northern Pacific Railroad completed to Tacoma, linking Washington to the East.

1887

• Dawes Severalty Act is passed. Indian lands are split into individual allotments, with remaining lands becoming public and therefore up for sale.

1889

• Washington is admitted as the 42nd state in the union.

• The great fire destroys 25 blocks in Seattle.

1893

• Great Northern Railroad completed to Seattle.

1897

• The first shipment of gold from the Klondike reaches Seattle.

1899

• Mount Rainier National Park established.

1909

• Seattle hosts a World's Fair, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.

1910

• Women gain the right to vote in Washington.