| 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 |
| 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 |
| Formal opening | 1915 |