1492	Columbus reaches the new continent.
1521	Ferdinand Magellan claims the Philippines for Spain.
1549	The Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier arrives in Japan.
1600s	Chinese and Japanese reach Mexico aboard Spanish galleons.
1603	The Tokugawa shogunate gains effective control over Japan for the next 264 years and enforces a policy of national seclusion.
1620	The Pilgrims settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1635	Chinese workers in Mexico form the beginnings of a Chinese colony in Mexico City.
1637	The nomadic Manchus invade Korea and force an unconditional surrender from the Korean king.
1644	The Manchus conquer China and establish the Ch'ing dynasty which rules China for the next 267 years.
1640s	Europeans begin to arrive in East Asia.
1743	European population in the colonies passes one million mark.
1776	Congress votes for independence and publishes the Declaration of Independence.
1784	The Empress of China, the first of the China Clippers, sails from New York to Canton.
1785	Three Chinese crewmen are reportedly stranded in Baltimore for almost a year, being the earliest known Asians arriving on the East Coast.
1790	First U.S. Census records 4 million people. U.S. Congress limits citizenship by naturalization to free, white aliens.
1803	The Louisana Purchase adds a huge territory to the United States.
1820	The Immigration Commission reports the arrival of the first Chinese in the United States.
1840	The Kingdom of Hawaii under Kamehameha III adopts a constitution to preserve its independence amidst political maneuverings among the U.S., Britain, and France.
1842	England defeats China in the Opium War (1839-42) forcing China to make many concessions including the ceding of Hong Kong to the British rule. Numerous aggressive wars on China by England and France follow closely forcing China to make additional concessions. The Opium War marks the beginning of China's rapid economic decline.
1844	China signs the Treaty of Wanghsia with the U.S. granting the U.S. privileges in China enjoyed by England and France.
1846	U.S. boundaries are pushed to the Pacific by the Mexican War (1846-48).
1848	Strike of gold at Sutter's Mill, California, begins the California Gold Rush drawing many Chinese immigrants to West Coast, who mine gold and work on the farms, railroad construction, and other industries.
1850	California joins the Union. California levies a Foreign Miners' Tax on Chinese miners to discourage Chinese from mining. (Ruled unconstitutional in 1870)
1851	The Taiping Rebellion (1851-64) disrupts the southeastern part of China forcing many local inhabitants to seek opportunities aboard.
1852	California levies more new taxes on Chinese miners driving many of them to Australia as gold is discovered there. U. S. Commodore Matthew Perry anchors at Edo (Tokyo) Bay and forcefully "opens the door" to Japan.
1854	California State Supreme Court rules that Chinese are included in a 1850 act which provides that "no black, or mulatto persons, or Indian, shall be allowed to give evidence in favor of, or against, a white man." Over 13,000 Chinese immigrants arrive in California this year when it is suffering from a business recess; unemployment and economic reverses fuel anti-Chinese sentiments. The first Chinese newspaper, the San Francisco Golden Hills' News (Kim Shan Jit San Luk), is published.
1855	To discourage Chinese immigration, California requires the owner of a vessel to pay $50 tax for each of its passengers ineligible for citizenship. (Ruled unconstitutional in 1857)
1857	British government assumes rule of the Indian subcontinent after a century of control by the British East India Company.
1858	California passes law to prevent further immigration of Chinese to the state.
1860	California excludes Chinese from public schools and requires Chinese to pay a monthly fee of $4 for fishing (repealed in 1864). The American Civil War (1860-65) is fought over issues of secession and abolition of slavery.
1862	California passes legislation to further discourage Chinese immigration to the state, and requires Chinese to pay a police tax (ruled unconstitutional in 1863).
1863	California legislature enacts a law under which no Chinese are permitted to give evidence in favor of, or against, any white man. Cambodia becomes a French protectorate.
1864	Thousands of Chinese laborers work on the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad.
1865	Central Pacific actively recruits Chinese laborers from California and China to work on railroad construction since the tracks have reached the mountainous areas and it is difficult to find enough white workers to work in such hard and dangerous conditions.
1868	Over forty thousand Chinese miners are driven out of mining and have to resettle on farms and urban areas. The Tokugawa shogunate falls, and Japan is ruled under the reign of Meiji. Japanese contract workers arrive in Hawaii to work the sugar plantations.
1869	The Transcontinental Railroad is completed by joining the tracks of the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific. Chinese labor constituted 90 percent of a total work force of ten thousand during the last stage of the construction of the Central Pacific. With a rapid influx of white immigrants to the west coast, made possible by the railroad, Chinese become unwanted and are being mistreated and excluded. The first Japanese colony on the U.S. mainland, the Wakamatsu colony, was established as a tea and silk farm near Gold Hill, California.
1870	Congress passes the Naturalization Act which excludes Chinese from citizenship and forbids the entry of wives of laborers. California passes law to deny entry of Chinese and Japanese females to the state on the supposition that they all come as prostitutes, and imposes fine on any person bringing a Chinese or Japanese to California without evidence of the immigrant's good character. Chinese laborers arrive in Massachusetts to work in the shoe factories (many as strike breakers), and some have gone south to work on the construction of the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad.
1873	The International Workingmen's Association promotes anti-Chinese policy disguised as anti-coolie policy.
1875	Congress passes act to prohibit the entry of convicts and prostitutes, which is used against Chinese immigration by requiring proof of good character from each immigrant before admission.
1879	The second Constitution of California adopted this year contains many discriminatory provisions against Chinese: (1) Chinese immigrants are denied naturalization; (2) corporations are not allowed to hire Chinese; (3) Chinese are forbidden to be employed in public works except in punishment of crime; (4) recruitment of Chinese laborers is considered as coolie trade and is made illegal; (5) State Legislature is to assist the removal of Chinese to regions beyond the limits of cities and towns. Congress passes law to limit ships to carry no more than 15 Chinese passengers each.
1880	Mobs destroy all Chinese homes and business properties in Denver, Colorado, though state legislature passed resolution to welcome Chinese immigration just ten year earlier.
1882	Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act which prohibits the admission of Chinese laborers for a period of ten years. It is later renewed and modified until it is finally repealed in 1943.
1883	Japanese replace the Chinese as a source of cheap labor after the Chinese Exclusion Act. Vietnam comes under French colonial rule, which lasts till the outbreak of WW II.
1884	Congress further restricts Chinese living in, and their re-entry into, the United States.
1885	Anti-Chinese violence flares as the nation suffers from widespread economic depression. Large-scale immigration of Japanese contract laborers to Hawaii begins.
1886	Chinese residents are driven out of numerous cities, like Eureka, California, Tacoma and Seattle of Washington, Oregon City and Albina of Oregon, through threats and violent means; on Douglas Island, Alaska, a hundred Chinese are forced to board a small ship and set adrift at sea. Burma is made a province of India after the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885.
1887	U.S. acquire the right from the Hawaiian Kingdom to establish a naval base at Pearl Harbor.
1888	Congress passes the Scott Act which bars the re-entry of Chinese laborers who have left the U.S. for temporary visits to China (permitted under the Exclusion Act). Over 20,000 Chinese laborers with re-entry permits are denied return to the U.S.
1889	Record shows that the Chinese population in the U.S. has been reduced by 15,360 since the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, a loss of almost 2,000 every year on the average.
1890	Japanese immigration arrives in significant numbers, many of whom are male laborers from Hawaii.
1892	Congress passes the Geary Act which extends the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 for another ten years and requires Chinese living in the United States to carry certificates of residence.
1893	The Chinese community raises a large sum of money to challenge the constitutionality of the Geary Act before the Supreme Court. In upholding the act, the Supreme Court decides in the case of Fong Yue Ting v. United States, that the Congress has the right to legislate expulsion of Chinese through the order of executive officers. The French create the Indo Chinese Union to govern an area consisting of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
1895	Japan defeats China in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). Japan gains Formosa and the Pescadores Islands from China. China is forced to recognize Japanese hegemony in Korea.
1898	U.S. Supreme Court overturns previous court rulings to admit Wong Kim Ark to the United States, who was born in the U.S. of Chinese parents and a citizen of the U.S., but was denied entry to the U.S. in 1895 on the basis of the Chinese Exclusion Act after he departed for China on a temporary visit in 1894. This is an example of governmental harassment of citizen of Chinese ancestry. The Philippine Islands and Guam are ceded to the U.S. after the Spanish-American War of 1898. The inhabitants of these islands are U.S. nationals but not citizens. The Nichibei Times, one of the first Japanese newspapers in the U.S., is published in San Francisco, Calif. Hawaii is annexed as a territory of the U.S.
1899	The Filipino-American War begins when the Filipino revolutionary forces which liberated Philippines from the Spanish rule conflict with U.S. troops which captured Manila. Samoa is acquired by the U.S. to be used as a naval base in the Pacific.
1900	Hawaii Islands become a U.S. territory, but Chinese living in Hawaii are forbidden to travel to the U.S. mainland.
1901	The Japanese Association of America is founded in San Francisco to fight racial discrimination. The Philippines independent movement is crushed by the U.S. forces, and William Howard Taft is appointed the first civil governor of the Philippines.
1902	Congress extends the Chinese Exclusion Acts indefinitely. The Hawaii Sugar Planters Association actively recruits Korean laborers from Korea.
1904	The National Convention of the American Federation of Labor meeting in San Francisco resolves to exclude Japanese, Koreans and Chinese from membership. Laos is annexed by France.
1905	The Asiatic Exclusion League is formed by labor unions in San Francisco to agitate for limitation of immigration of Asian workers. Koreans are recruited to work on railroad construction. The Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) ends with Russia agreeing to surrender its economic and political interests in China's Manchuria, and recognizes Japan's control of Korea.
1906	California's anti-miscegenation laws are amended to bar marriage between whites and "Mongols." All anti-miscegenation laws are eventually declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. The San Francisco School Board requires Japanese and Korean children to attend the segregated "Oriental" public schools along with the Chinese. Fires set off by an earthquake in San Francisco destroy all of the municipal records and thus opening the way to "paper sons".
1907	Workers from India begin arriving on the west coast.
1908	In a "Gentlemen's Agreement" with the U.S., Japan agrees to limit Japanese immigration to the U.S. as laborers and to ban further Korean immigration.
1909	The Korean National Association is formed in San Francisco, which encourages Koreans in America to oppose Japan's occupation of Korea. Thailand surrenders Malaya to the British after losing Laos and Cambodia to the French earlier.
1910	U.S. Supreme Court extends the 1870 Naturalization Act to other Asians, which excludes them from U.S. citizenship. A detention center on Angel Island is set up to process Chinese immigrants for admission as the former facility located in an old warehouse was declared unfit for human habitation in 1903. Japanese "picture brides" begin arriving in the U.S. Large-scale immigration of Korean laborers, picture brides, and political refugees to the U.S. begins as Korea is annexed by Japan.
1911	China becomes a republic ending the 267-year rule of the Ch'ing dynasty. China is however afflicted with military strifes for the next 17 years among warlords supported by different foreign powers.
1913	California passes the Alien Land Law which prevents "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning land or leasing it for more than three years. Over the next few years eight other western states follow California to bar Japanese and Chinese immigrants from owning land.
1914	World War I (1914-18) breaks out in Europe. Japan joins the side of the Allies and declares war on Germany and the other Central Powers, and proceeds to seize major Germany's holdings in China. After the United States enters the war in 1917, China also declares war on Germany in the same year.
1917	Congress overrides President Wilson's veto to pass the Asiatic Barred Zone Act which excludes immigration from South and Southeast Asia.
1918	The Fresno Loyalty League, the first all-Nisei club in the U.S., is organized.
1920	California's Alien Land Law is amended to forbid Issei to buy land in the names of their Nisei children who are U.S. citizens by birth. Mahatma Gandhi initiates a strategy of nonviolent civil disobedience with India's British rulers.
1921	Under pressure from the U.S., the Japanese government ceases to issue passports to "picture brides". The first Filipino newspaper in the continental United States, The Philippine Independent News, is published in Salinas, California.
1922	Congress passes the Cable Act which provides that ". . . any woman who marries an alien ineligible for citizenship shall cease to be an American citizen." (Repealed in 1936). U.S. Supreme Court rules in the Ozawa vs. U.S. case that Japanese immigrants are not eligible for citizenship.
1924	Congress passes the Asian Exclusion Act which excludes the immigration of all Asian laborers.
1925	U.S. Supreme Court rules that Filipinos are not eligible for U.S. citizenship unless they have served in the U.S. Navy for three years; Japanese are not eligible for U.S. citizenship even if they have served in the military; Chinese wives of American citizens are not allowed to come to America.
1927	The Filipino Federation of Labor is founded in Los Angeles to protect migrant workers from the abuses of labor contractors and farm owners.
1929	New York stock market collapses inaugurating a general economic depression for the next ten years. Anti-Asian attacks and riots mount during this period, especially those against Filipinos farm workers. The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), a national Nisei organization, is founded. The yoyo, a Filipino toy, is taking this country by storm.
1931	The Cable Act is amended to allow Nisei women married to Issei to retain their U.S. citizenship. Congress passes the Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act which excludes Filipinos from immigrating to the U.S. as they are ruled ineligible for U.S. citizenship. Hostility between China and Japan breaks out over the Manchurian Incident. Koreans abroad resolve to cooperate with the Chinese to defeat the common enemy, Japan.
1933	Filipino labor leaders organize the 30,000 Filipino agricultural workers in California, and succeed in demanding higher wage from the Salinas Valley Growers and Shippers' Association.
1934	Tydings-McDuffie Act promises independence to the Philippines in 10 years. Filipinos are no long U.S. nationals and the immigration quota is limited to 50 per year.
1935	Under pressure to deport Filipinos, Congress passes the Filipino Repatriation Act which provides transportation expenses for Filipinos to return to the Philippines, but also stipulates that those who take advantage of it cannot re-enter the U.S. Filipinos become the second largest racial group in the Territory of Hawaii.
1937	Japan invades China; the British government separates Burma from India.
1939	Koreans in Los Angeles picket against U.S. scrap iron and airplane fuel shipment to Japan. It is the first public demonstration in the U.S. against Japan's occupation of Korea and invasion of China. Filipino asparagus workers of the Stockton and Sacramento valleys go on strike for higher pays and win, and later organize the Filipino Agricultural Workers Association. Germany invades Poland.
1940	The Angel Island Detention Center closes, and the facility is turned over to the U.S. Army. France surrenders to Germany; Japan joins the Axis ; Japanese troops enter Indochina; the French administration in Indochina cooperates with the Japanese occupation forces.
1941	Germany attacks the Soviet Union. In response to Japan's military activities in Asia, the U.S. freeze Japanese assets in America and imposes an embargo on oil supplies to Japan; on December 7 Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, later invades the Philippines, and occupies Guam. U.S. declares war on Japan. Congress passes law to enable Filipinos to serve in the U.S. army, and a third of the Filipine men in the U.S. sign up to fight in the American military. President Roosevelt outlaws racial discrimination in defense-industry employment and creates the Fair Employment Practices Commission. Ho Chi Minh organizes the Viet Minh in Vietnam, which assists the Allies during the war.
1942	President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 authorizing the internment of 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry into concentration camps. Three-fourths of the internees are American citizens. The First Filipino Infantry Battalion is formed.
1943	China and the U.S. are allies against Japan; over 20 per cent of Chinese adult males living in the U.S. are drafted or enlisted in the U.S. Army; the Magnuson Act finally repeals the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Third Battalion of the California State Militia of Salinas, a Filipino unit, and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an all-Nisei unit, are formed.
1944	Supreme Court rules that loyal citizens may not be held by a government agency without recourse to due process -- the first step toward camp closures. War Brides Act removes racial restriction for Asian brides and permits their entry. Guam is retaken by the U.S. forces.
1945	Japan surrenders unconditionally to the Allies; Korea is partitioned into North Korea and South Korea along the 38th parallel; Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh and Cambodia under Prince Norodom Sihanouk declare independence from France; Viet Minh forces wage a guerrilla war with the occupying French troops.
1946	Japanese occupation of the Philippines ends. Philippines become independent. The Filipino Naturalization Bill permits Filipinos born in the U.S. to be eligible for citizenship and is later extended to include Filipinos who have entered the U.S. prior to 1934. President Truman decorates the colors of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which is the most decorated unit in World War II; all war-time internment camps are close. First Indochina War between the Vietminh and France begins as France attempts a reconquest of Indochina to re-establish colonial rule.
1947	President Truman established the Committee on Civil Rights to advance civil rights for racial minorities. Trust Territory of Pacific (Micronesia) comes under U.S. jurisdiction, previously mandated to Japan after WW1. The Indian subcontinent is partitioned into India and Pakistan after gaining independence from British rule.
1948	Evacuation Claims Act authorizes payment of settlements to people of Japanese ancestry who suffered economic losses from internment: 10 cents is returned for every $1 lost. TK U.S. Supreme Court decides that alien land laws violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and that race-restrictive housing covenants constitute racial discrimination and a denial of equal protection of the laws. U.S. Congress passes the Displaced Persons Act allowing Chinese displaced by the civil war in China to remain in the U.S. as permanent residents. Failing to achieve a unified Korea, the Republic of Korea is inaugurated in the south and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is proclaimed in the north. Burma gains independence from Britain.
1949	The People's Republic of China is founded.
1950	Guam is made a U.S. territory, and the Guamanians are given U.S. citizenship under the Organic Act; Samoans begins to migrate to U.S. and Hawaii when Navy closes down its bases at Tutuila. North Korea invades South Korea to unify Korea by force. The United Nations considers it an act of aggression and calls upon the member nations to intervene. China's intervention in the Korean War sets off hysterical anti-Chinese reactions in the U.S.; Congress passes the McCarran Internal Security Act providing for the internment of Communists during a national emergency. Pathet Laos is created to join forces with the Vietminh to fight the French.
1952	The Walter-McCarran Immigration and Naturalization Act repeals the Asian Exclusion Act of 1924 and allows a small token of Asians to immigrate to the U.S. with right of citizenship.
1953	The Refugee Relief Act offers nonquota immigrant visas to Chinese and Eastern European refugees. The Korean War (1950-53) ends with in an influx of Korean war brides with similar difficulties as the war brides from Japan. Cambodia finally gains independence from France.
1954	Vietminh forces encircle the French military position at Dien Bian Phu forcing the French to end the First Indochina War (1946-54); Vietnam is temporarily divided along the 17th parallel in preparation for reunification after an all-Vietnamese election in 1956.
1955	Filipinos are the second fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S. with the lowest income.
1957	Communist-led insurrection starts in South Vietnam when the U.S.-supported South Vietnamese government refuses to hold the all-Vietnamese election.
1959	A "Confession Program" is created for Chinese residing in the U.S. illegally to confess their guilt and disclose on every relative and friend. The program, lasting eight years, spreads divisions and mistrust within the Chinese community. The Territory of Hawaii becomes a state.
1961	President Kennedy agrees to send military advisors to South Vietnam, and U.S. is directly involved with the Vietnam conflict.
1962	The civil rights movement is gaining ground when federal troops are employed to assure the admission of a Negro student at the University of Mississippi. Burma becomes a socialist state under General Ne Win.
1964	U.S. forces in Vietnam are increased drastically under President Johnson after the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
1965	New immigration law formally eliminates race, creed, and nationality as a basis for immigration and it allows the admission of 20,000 immigrants per year from each independent nation, Asian or European alike. Americanization of the Vietnamese war starts in earnest; Cambodia breaks relation with the U.S. and aligns with North Vietnam, South Vietnam's National Liberation Front and China.
1967	U.S. Supreme Court rules that all anti-miscegenation laws are unconstitutional.
1968	Students of the San Francisco State College go on strike in support of minority students' demand for a more relevant and community-based education. It leads to the creation of the first School of Ethnic Studies in the nation. Civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated.
1970	Anti-war movement reaches a peak when U.S. military encroaches into Cambodia; Ohio National Guardsmen fire on demonstrating students, killing four. Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia is oustered by US-backed Lon Nol.
1971	East Pakistan rebels and achieves independence as the nation of Bangladesh.
1972	Guamanians elect their first native governor and delegate to the U.S. Congress. Ceylon becomes a republic and changes its name to Sri Lanka. U.N. General Assembly overrides U.N. Security Council's veto to allow the People's Republic of China to represent China in its membership.
1973	U.S. agrees to a cease-fire in Vietnam.
1974	U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case of Lau v. Nichols enforcing the provision of bilingual-bicultural instruction to non-English speaking students.
1975	Saigon falls; Vietnam is unified; Khmer Rouge comes into power in Cambodia. The first wave of Southeast Asian refugees, some 130,000, predominantly Vietnamese, enters the U.S.; Congress passes the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act to provide funds for resettlement programs.
1976	North and South Vietnam are reunited as one nation after 22 years of separation.
1977	U.S. Supreme Court rules on the Bakke case, upholding race as a factor in remedying the effects of past discrimination.
1978	JACL adopts a resolution calling for the U.S. government to redress its incarceration of Japanese Americans during WW II. Vietnam invades Cambodia to overthrow the Khmer Rouge and set up the People's Republic of Kampuchea the following year.
1979	First official recognition is given to the Asian-Pacific American Heritage Week (May 4-10). U.S. normalizes diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.
1980	Congress establishes the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Evacuation of Civilians (Redress Commission) to determine if any wrongs have been committed in the internment of Japanese Americans during WW II. Congress passes the Refugee Act of 1980 enabling more refugees to enter the U.S.; approximately 35,000 Laotians, 30,000 Hmongs and 20,000 Kampucheans are being resettled in the U.S. U.S. Census reports 3,726,440 Asians and Pacific Islanders in the U.S.
1981	The Asian American Legal Defense Fund filed suit to stop the development of luxury housing in New York's Chinatown area without taking environmental impact study. Recent Asian immigrants are threatened by Ku Klux Klan members in Texas and California.
1982	A hundred years after the Chinese Exclusion Act, Vincent Chin, a Chinese American in Detroit, is beaten to death by two assailants who, blaming Japanese for their unemployment, mistake Chin for a Japanese.
1983	The Redress Commission issued its formal recommendations to Congress, calling for an official apology for the camps and payment of $20,000 to each surviving former internee.
1986	The Californians United is organized to counter the English-only movement which advocates outlawing federal funding of bilingual programs and education, and the repeal of bilingual ballot requirements under the Voting Rights Act. A Cambodian home is firebombed in Revere, Massachusetts.
1987	Repeated attacks of Indo-American residents of Jersey City, NJ, result in one death.
1988	The Civil Liberties Act which includes the recommendations of the Redress Commission is signed into law by President Reagan despite earlier threats of veto. The Asian Labor Resource Center holds conference in New York with American labor organizations to address issues of Asian employment and discrimination in the labor market.
1989	Myanmar is the official designation of Burma.

Postcript:
This timeline is compiled by George Leung in 1989 for an Asian American Reader under preparation at the time. The Reader is never published, and the timeline is buried in the files for all these years. It is now included in this website for anybody who might be interested.