The Lost Colony of Roanoke
An English colony vanishes, leaving one word carved on a post

In 1587 more than a hundred colonists settled on Roanoke Island, where Virginia Dare became the first English child born in the Americas. Governor John White sailed home for supplies, but war with Spain delayed him until 1590. He found the site deserted, with CROATOAN carved on a post.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Did you know
The Roanoke colony may have been lost because of the Spanish Armada. Governor White sailed home for supplies, but the war kept him away three years — in 1590 he found only CROATOAN carved on a post. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — 15 years earlier
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — 5 years earlier
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — 1 year later
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — 11 years later
- 1600 East India Company founded — 13 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1569 Union of Lublin — 18 years earlier
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — 5 years earlier
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — 11 years later
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — 25 years later
Africa
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — 4 years later
Asia
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — 5 years later
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — 13 years later
Alive at the time
- Elizabeth I (aged 54)
- Akbar the Great (aged 45)
- Tokugawa Ieyasu (aged 44)
- Miguel de Cervantes (aged 40)
- William Shakespeare (aged 23)
- Galileo Galilei (aged 23)
- Philip II of Spain (aged 60)
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi (aged 50)
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki (aged 50)
- Mary, Queen of Scots (aged 45)