MILESTONES

A Transatlantic Chronology

Dated turning points through which European agency, capital, and ideas shaped the United States — from the founding of St. Augustine in 1565 to the BioNTech-Pfizer partnership of 2020.

By category
By century

  1. Spain founds St. Augustine, Florida

    Settlement & Territory

    The oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the present-day United States is established by Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.

  2. Vitus Bering's voyage claims Alaska for the Russian Empire

    Settlement & Territory

    Danish-born navigator Vitus Bering, in Russian service, reaches the Alaskan coast — the first sustained European presence in what becomes the 49th state.

  3. European Enlightenment thought shapes the Declaration of Independence

    Political & Constitutional

    Jefferson's draft draws directly on Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau — European political philosophy embedded in America's founding document.

  4. Spanish forces under Bernardo de Gálvez capture Pensacola

    Political & Constitutional

    Gálvez's two-month siege opens a Spanish front in the Gulf of Mexico, drawing British forces away from the decisive theatre in the north.

  5. The Treaty of Paris formally ends the Revolutionary War

    Diplomatic & International

    Negotiated in France with French, British, and American delegates, the treaty recognises American independence and establishes the new nation's borders.

  6. The Louisiana Purchase transfers 828,000 square miles from France to the United States

    Settlement & Territory

    Napoleon's sale of French territory doubles the size of the young republic for $15 million — roughly four cents an acre.

  7. The Erie Canal opens, drawing on European hydraulic engineering

    Engineering & Infrastructure

    The 363-mile canal linking the Hudson River to the Great Lakes is built using engineering principles drawn from European canal traditions, particularly in France and the Netherlands.

  8. The "Forty-Eighters" emigration wave follows failed German revolutions

    Migration & Society

    Failed liberal revolutions across the German states drive intellectuals, professionals, and political reformers to the United States, reshaping American civic life.

  9. The First Transcontinental Railroad is completed at Promontory Summit

    Engineering & Infrastructure

    European-born engineers and a labour force including thousands of Irish and German immigrants complete the rail link between the Missouri River and the Pacific.

  10. The Statue of Liberty, gift of France, is dedicated in New York Harbor

    Cultural & Educational

    Designed by sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi with structural engineering by Gustave Eiffel, the colossus marks a century of Franco-American friendship.

  11. Ellis Island opens as the federal immigration station

    Migration & Society

    Over the following 62 years, Ellis Island processes more than 12 million European immigrants — the largest single transfer of population in modern history.

  12. The Wright brothers fly at Kitty Hawk, drawing on European aerodynamic research

    Science & Technology

    The Wrights' first powered flight rests on a foundation of European work — Otto Lilienthal's glider experiments, Cayley's aerodynamic theory, and Langley's wing studies.

  13. Einstein and Szilard write to President Roosevelt warning of atomic weapons

    Science & Technology

    Two European-born physicists, both refugees from Nazi Europe, set in motion the policy chain that becomes the Manhattan Project.

  14. Chicago Pile-1 achieves the first sustained nuclear chain reaction

    Science & Technology

    Under the stands of the disused Stagg Field, Enrico Fermi's team triggers the first controlled nuclear chain reaction in human history.

  15. Operation Paperclip brings over 1,600 German scientists and engineers to the United States

    Science & Technology

    Among them, Wernher von Braun and the Peenemünde rocket team are relocated to America under a programme whose history remains contested.

  16. The Marshall Plan funds European reconstruction

    Economic & Commerce

    Over four years, $13.3 billion in American aid rebuilds Western European economies, embedding the transatlantic alliance and shaping American foreign policy for a generation.

  17. NATO is founded in Washington, D.C.

    Diplomatic & International

    Twelve European and North American nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty, binding the United States to European security for the first time in peacetime.

  18. Apollo 11 lands on the Moon, lifted by the von Braun–designed Saturn V

    Science & Technology

    The most powerful rocket ever flown, designed by a German-born engineer brought to the U.S. in 1945, carries the first humans to another world.

  19. Belgian-Brazilian InBev acquires Anheuser-Busch

    Economic & Commerce

    A European-led $52 billion takeover of one of America's most recognisable consumer brands — a reverse of the nineteenth-century immigrant founding.

  20. BioNTech (Germany) and Pfizer (U.S., German-founded) deliver the first authorised mRNA Covid-19 vaccine

    Science & Technology

    A German biotech founded by Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci partners with a German-American pharmaceutical giant to deliver the defining medical breakthrough of the pandemic.