0- 1300

Ancestral Pueblo Indians settle southwestern Colorado.

1492

Cristobal Colón (Christopher Columbus) has first contact with the Americas.

1519- 1521

Conquistador Hernán Cortés leads expedition to the mainland from Cuba, occupies the central valley of Mexico, and defeats the Aztec Empire.

1528- 1536

Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and companions, survivors of the ill-fated Narváez expedition to Florida, journey through the Southwest seeking return to New Spain.

1540- 1542

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, a Spanish conquistador appointed by the Viceroy of New Spain, leads a large expedition to explore the Provincias Internas (modern day New Mexico, Arizona, and Kansas).

1598

Juan de Oñate leads the first Spanish colonizing expedition to northern New Mexico and may have been the first known European to set foot in present day Colorado.

1664

Juan de Archuleta excursion into Colorado to El Quartelejo on the Arkansas River near present day Las Animas

1694

Diego de Vargas followed the Rio Grande and ‘marveled’ at a heard of five hundred buffalo in the San Luis Valley. His journal mentions names of Colorado rivers, creeks and mountains.

1706

Juan de Ulibarrí crosses southeastern Colorado in pursuit of Indians approximately as far as present day Las Animas.

1719

Antonio de Valverde crossed the Raton Mountains.

1720

Pedro de Villasur traveled the Santa Fe Trail past El Quartelejo to the junction of the North and South Platte River and were attacked and killed by Pawnee.

1765

Juan Maria de Rivera explored southwestern Colorado along the San Juan Mountains as far as the Gunnison River near present- day Delta.

1776

The Domínguez - Escalante expedition produces a journal and the first map of Colorado and the Southwest.

1779

New Mexico Provincial Governor Juan Bautista de Anza engages, defeats, and enforces a peace agreement with the Comanches led by Cuerno Verde (Chief Greenhorn) and his warriors near present- day Pueblo, Colorado.

1803

Louisiana Purchase.

1806

Zebulon Pike explores the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase, enters Spanish territory illegally, and is captured by Spanish soldiers.

1819

Adams- Onís Treaty defines Spanish Colorado as the area south of the Arkansas and west of its headwaters.

1820s

Mountain men and Trappers move into Colorado.

1821

Mexican Independence from Spain.

1822- 1880

Santa Fe Trail crosses Colorado linking a trade route between Santa Fe, New Mexico and western Missouri.

1833

Bent’s Fort established on the Arkansas River dividing the U.S. from Mexico.

1835

Fort Vásquez is founded by Louis Vásquez and Andrew Sublette near current day Platteville, Colorado.

1842

El Pueblo Trading Post founded on the Arkansas River, which promotes trade between Native Americans and Euro- Americans.

1843

Governor Manuel Armijo approves multiple land grant partitions within the border of modern Colorado. (Tierra Amarilla; Conejos; Maxwell (also known as Beaubien and Miranda); Vigil and Ceran St. Vrain (also known as the Las Animas); Nolan; Sangre de Cristo; Luis Maria Baca No. 4)

1845-1848

U.S. - Mexican War.

1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo cedes northern third of Mexico to U.S. but in theory guarantees former Mexican citizens the right to their land, language, and religion.

1850

New Mexico becomes a U.S. Territory (includes current day Colorado, Utah and Arizona). It remains a territory for 62 years, the longest of any territory.

1851

San Luis established as first permanent Hispano town in Colorado.

1854

Ute warriors attack El Pueblo.

1857

Mexicans find gold in the South Platte River in present- day Denver at Mexican Diggings.

1858

Russell Party discovers gold in Cherry Creek and the South Platte, triggering the great Colorado gold rush.

1861

Colorado becomes a U.S. territory.

1862

Felipe Baca establishes the town of Trinidad.

1876

Colorado becomes a state.

1891

U.S. Congress authorized settlement of the land grant claims by the Court of 9 Private Land Claims.

1910

The Great Western Sugar Company recruits Hispanic workers to work in northern Colorado.

1914

Ludlow coal strike on April 20, 1914

1914- 1918

World War I.

1917

Immigration Act of 1917 (allows massive influx of Mexican migrant workers).

1930s

The Great Depression.

1936

Governor “Big” Ed Johnson declares martial law at the New Mexico border to hold back ‘hordes’ of migrant workers.

1941- 1945

World War II.

1960s

Crusade for Justice and other Chicano rights organizations founded in Denver.

1976

Rubén Valdéz first Hispano Speaker of the House in the Colorado General Assembly.

1978

First Hispanic woman senator, Polly Baca- Barragán elected to the Colorado State Legislature

1983

Federico Peña elected as Denver’s first Hispanic mayor.

2002

Colorado Supreme Court rules that descendants of the original settlers of the Sangre de Cristo Grant had the right to the traditional uses of access from grazing, firewood, and timber on communal land that had become part of the Taylor Ranch.

2005

Ken Salazar elected to U.S. Senate and his brother John to the U.S. House of Representatives.

2009

Kenneth Lee “Ken” Salazar is confirmed as U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

2010

2010: Hispanics Comprise 20.3 % of Colorado’s population as by far the largest ethnic group.