1509 Beginnings of slave trade to New World
1513 Sept 25, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Spanish explorer, crossed the Isthmus of Panama and claimed the Pacific Ocean for Spain
He was named governor of Panama and the Pacific by King Ferdinand
1514 1,500 Spanish settlers go to Panama
1519 - Panama becomes Spanish Vice-royalty of New Andalucia (later New Granada)
1522 First slave revolt in America occurs in Hispaniola
1566 Two million Indians die in South America of typhoid fever
1810 - Overthrow of the king of Spain by Napoleon
1821 - Panama becomes independent of Spain
1821 - Panama joins the confederacy of Gran Colombia which consists of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia
1830 - Panama becomes part of Colombia following the collapse of Gran Colombia
1850's - the building of the Panama Railway which is the first Transcontinental railway of the New World crossing the isthmus from Colon to Panama City
1880s - France makes a failed attempt to build a Canal to link the Atlantic and Pacific
1903 November 3 - Panama splits from Colombia and becomes fully independent
1903 - US buys rights to build Panama Canal and controls the waterway for nearly a century
15 August 1915 - Official opening of the Panama Canal a massive achievement - the Panama Canal is 65 km ( 40 miles ) in length
1939 - Panama ceases to be a US protectorate
1 January 2000: Control of the canal passes from USA to Panama by the Torrijos-Carter treaty