St. Augustine, Florida, was founded in 1565 and is widely described as the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the continental United States. Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés established the settlement on September 8, 1565.
The Spanish expedition arrived after France had established Fort Caroline near present-day Jacksonville. Menéndez attacked the French settlement and built St. Augustine as a base for Spanish control of Florida and the surrounding Atlantic coast. The town remained under Spanish rule for much of its early history.
St. Augustine predates Jamestown, founded in 1607, and Plymouth, founded in 1620. Those later English settlements are often more familiar in United States school history, but they were not the first permanent European-founded communities in what is now the continental United States.
The word “permanent” matters because earlier European voyages and short-lived settlements also existed in North America. St. Augustine’s continuous history, rather than simply the date of first exploration, explains its special status in the long story leading to the United States’ 250th anniversary.