In 2004 archaeologists and historians formed the First Colony Foundation to research England's first forays into the New World.

ECONOMIST: The mystery of Roanoke

That's why one of the most powerful voting blocks in the 22nd district goes to First Colony Mall in the mornings to get their exercise.

NPR: Questions Linger About DeLay's Place on the Ballot

Senegal was France's first colony in Africa, in 1658.

BBC: France - superpower or sugar daddy?

Plymouth, it turned out, wasn't even the first English colony in New England.

NPR: Unearthing History in 'A Voyage Long and Strange'

Mr Lane took a special interest in the two patches, learning that the British Museum had never determined what was under them even though the map had been in its collection since 1866 and was on show in 2007 as part of the quadricentennial of Jamestown, Virginia, the site of England's first permanent colony in America.

ECONOMIST: The mystery of Roanoke

Jamestown preceded Plymouth by thirteen years as the first permanent English colony on the continent.

NPR: Unearthing History in 'A Voyage Long and Strange'

Moreover, it was in 2004 that America began importing bees from Australia just when American beekeepers are thought to have seen the first suspected cases of colony collapse disorder.

ECONOMIST: A virus may help explain colony collapse disorder

Part of a former British colony, Ghana was among the first African countries to gain independence, in 1957.

CNN: Ghana mourns as President John Atta Mills is buried

In December 1949 the new governor of the recently acquired British colony of Sarawak was on his first official tour.

BBC: The stabbed governor of Sarawak

Mr Wilson's mini-epic begins with the demise of the queen of the Trailhead Colony, whose death is not at first noticed by her daughter-followers.

ECONOMIST: The secret life of ants