Historical Dates - Timeline - Related to the Panama Canal

Conquest of Constantinople by Turks	1453
Columbus discovers Bay of Limon	1492
Rodrigo de Bastidas, Balboa, and La Cosa reach the Isthmus	1500
Columbus's Fourth Voyage, vainly seeks the strait	1502
Balboa sights the Pacific	Sept. 25, 1513
Pedrarias founds the old town of Panama	1519
Magellan discovers the straits that bear his name	1519-21
Gonzalez de Avila discovers Lake Nicaragua	1522
The quest of Isthmian Strait given up as hopeless	circa 1532
Gomara appeals to Charles V. to construct canal	1551
Drake sights the Pacific	1573
Philip III. directs surveys for Darien Canal	1616
English seize Jamaica	1655
Henry Morgan destroys old Panama	1671
Paterson's settlement at Panama	1698
Spanish surveys of Tehuantepec and Nicaragua	1771 and 1779
Von Humboldt's residence in Central America	1799-1804
Panama declares its independence and joins New Granada	1822
Overtures made by Central America to United States for canal	1825
Goethe's prophecies	1827
Dutch canal concession from Nicaraguan Government, 1829; abandoned	1830
British Honduras annexed by Great Britain	1835
United States Treaty with New Granada	1846
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty	1850
Panama Railway opened to traffic	1855
Dickinson-Ayon Treaty between United States and Nicaragua	1868
President Grant recommends canal under United States control	1869
Apppoints Interoceanic Canal Commission	1869
Suez Canal opened	1869
La Société Civile Internationale du Canal Interocéanique founded	1876
[Pg 13]Grant's Commission reports in favour of Nicaraguan route	1876
The De Lesseps Company formed	1878
Company starts work	1881
Bankruptcy of French company	1889
New Panama Company formed	1889
Construction work at Nicaragua	1890-3
Ferdinand de Lesseps died	1894
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty	1901
Spooner Act	1902
Panama revolts from Colombia	1903
Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty	1904
American occupation of Isthmus begins	1904
Completion of canal	1914
Opening of the Panama Canal	August 15, 1914

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