Short answers, pulled from the story.
It was commonly accepted that humans first reached North America by migrating across the Bering Sea 40,000 to 17,000 years ago. More recent discoveries may have pushed those estimates back at least another 90,000 years. Researchers agree on an origin in Central Asia and widespread habitation around the late glacial maximum, roughly 16,000 to 13,000 years before present.
The Norse provide the earliest physical evidence of European contact. Erik the Red founded a colony on Greenland in 985 CE, and his son Leif Eriksson is believed to have reached Newfoundland around the year 1000, naming it Vinland. The only Norse site found outside Greenland is at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The three principal colonial powers in North America were Spain, England, and France, though the Netherlands and Sweden later gained holdings. Spain's Veracruz, founded by Hernan Cortes in 1519, was the first successful Spanish settlement on the continent. France founded Port Royal in 1604 and Quebec City in 1608, while England settled Jamestown in 1607 and Plymouth in 1620.
The Maya civilization developed a writing system, built huge pyramids, and used a complex calendar. The Maya also developed the concept of zero some 500 years before anyone in the Old World. By the time the Spanish arrived, political dominance had shifted north to the Aztec Empire.
The American Revolution created the United States of America, while the flight of United Empire Loyalists produced English Canada as a separate community. Miguel Hidalgo declared Mexican independence in 1810, and Spain recognized it in 1821. The Canadian Confederation formed in 1867 with the creation of the Dominion of Canada.
On the 1st of January 1994, Canada, Mexico, and the United States signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, creating the world's largest free trade area. It marked a modern phase of open commerce and trade among the continent's states.