| 1497 | | 2 May:
John Cabot sets sail from England on his first successful voyage to North America.CBC CMoH |
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| 1534 | | 20 Apr:
Jacques Cartier sets sail from France on his first exploration of the New World.PC LoC |
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| 1565 | | 8 Sep:
The oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement within the borders of the continental United States, St. Augustine, Florida, is founded.SA LOC |
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| | 20 Sep:
Spanish forces capture the French Huguenot settlement of Fort Caroline in the first European battle on American soil.SIMag PG |
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| 1570 | | 10 Sep:
Spanish Jesuits land in present-day Virginia to establish the short-lived Ajacán Mission.EVA GoogleBooks |
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| 1582 | | 4 Oct:
The Gregorian calendar is introduced. The next day is October 15th.Britannica UFL |
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| 1583 | | 5 Aug:
The first English colony in North America is chartered at Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey Gilbert but no settlement is made there until 1604.Fordham HF.uk |
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| 1587 | |
| | 18 Aug:
Virginia Dare is the first English child born in the Americas.OB NCMoH |
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| 1590 | | 18 Aug:
Governor John White returns to Roanoke colony and finds it abandoned.NPS tLC |
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| 1602 | |
| | 28 May:
Bartholomew Gosnold establishes a settlement at Cuttyhunk Island.HoMV GoogleBooks |
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| 1603 | | 15 Mar:
Samuel de Champlain sets sail from France aboard the Bonne-Renommée on his first voyage to North America. MM&P OHT |
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| 1604 | | 26 Jun:
The French settle on Saint Croix Island in what is now Maine.tCE NPS |
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| 1606 | |
| | 19 Dec:
Three vessels - Susan Constant, of 100 tons, Capt Christopher Newport; Godspeed, of forty tons, Capt Bartholomew Gosnold; and Discovery, twenty tons, Capt John Ratcliffe - with 105 emigrants sail from the Downs, England destined for Virginia in the New World.LR MM |
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| 1607 | |
| | 14 May:
Jamestown is founded.LoC HJ |
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| | 19 Aug:
Popham Colony is established in New England. It survives for only a year.CSM MFS |
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| 1608 | | 7 Jan:
A fire breaks out in Jamestown destroying nearly the entire settlement.Google Books EVa |
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| 1609 | | 11 Sep:
Henry Hudson enters New York Bay in search of the Northwest Passage.IA NYSA |
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| 1614 | | 11 Oct:
Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General of the Dutch Republic for exclusive trading rights in the Nieuw-Nederland colony.SCW ND-Coins |
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| 1619 | | 30 Jul:
The first elected legislative assembly in the New World convenes in Jamestown.USHistory NPS |
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| 1620 | |
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| 1620/1 | |
| 1621 | |
| 1622 | | 22 Mar:
347 of Jamestown's settlers are massacred by the Powhatans.BoRI MM |
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| 1623/4 | |
| 1624 | |
| 1625 | | 22 Apr:
The West India Company decrees the establishment of Fort Amsterdam and the creation of adjoining farms on the island of Manhates (Manhattan).GC HMdb |
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| 1626 | |
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| 1627 | | 18 Jul:
A French missionary is the first European to mention the occurrence of petroleum in North America.GoogleBooks PA-Roots |
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| 1630 | |
| 1634 | |
| 1635 | | 23 Apr:
Boston Latin School, the oldest school in America, is founded.BLS tBLS |
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| 1636 | |
Roger Williams establishes Providence Plantation.PubBook |
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| 1638 | | 29 Mar:
Swedish colonists establish a settlement near present day Wilmington, Delaware, naming it Nya Sverige, New Sweden.F&P DEGov |
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| 1638/39 | |
| 1643 | |
| 1647 | |
| | 26 May:
Alse Young becomes the first person in America to be hanged as a witch.CT.gov Courant |
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| 1648 | |
| | 18 Oct:
The "Shoomakers of Boston" along with the coopers, form the first labor organization in America.jstor IA |
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| 1652 | |
| 1654 | | 26 Jan:
Portugal decrees that Jewish and Dutch settlers have three months to leave Brazil. Many of the refugees go on to establish the first Jewish community in Nieuw-Amsterdam.LoC JVL |
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| 1656 | |
| 1660 | |
| 1663 | |
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| 1664 | | 27 Aug:
Four English warships arrive in Nieuw-Amsterdam to claim the colony under the orders of James, Duke of York.13 WDL |
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| | 31 Aug:
Peter Stuyvesant, governor of Nieuw-Nederland, refuses to accept the terms of surrender to the British.SotS |
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| 1665 | |
| 1673 | |
| 1673/4 | |
| 1674 | | 19 Feb:
The signing of the Treaty of Westminster ends the Third Anglo-Dutch War.OUPLaw MW |
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| 1675 | |
| 1676 | | 19 Sep:
Bacon's Rebellion - Nathaniel Bacon and his followers set Jamestown on fire.NPS EoVA |
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| 1679 | | 27 May:
The Habeas Corpus Act, which required a court to examine the lawfulness of a prisoner's detention and thus prevent unlawful or arbitrary imprisonment, was passed by Parliament.AS LI |
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| 1681 | | 4 Mar:
William Penn receives a charter for "New Wales", which became "Sylvania" and finally Pennsylvania.XPH HSP |
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| 1683 | |
| 1687 | |
| 1689 | | 17 May:
King William's War; England declares war on France which lasts until the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick.HoMA MB |
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| 1692 | |
| | 29 Feb:
The first witchcraft accusations take place and arrest warrants are issued for Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.LoA WSU |
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| 1693 | |
| 1697 | | 20 Sep:
The Treaty of Ryswick settles the Nine Years War and ends hostilities in America, although that wouldn't happen for another two months.Jacobite theMet |
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| 1702 | |
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| 1704 | |
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| 1713 | | 11 Apr:
The Treaty of Utrecht is signed ending the War of the Spanish Succession, also known as Queen Anne's War in North America.CHNC CBC |
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| 1715 | |
| 1716 | |
| 1717 | | 27 Feb:
A series of four successive snowstorms create the Great Snow of 1717.NEHS NWS |
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| 1718 | |
| 1722 | |
| 1729 | |
| 1733 | | 12 Feb:
James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony, and its first city at Savannah.GHS OU |
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| | 17 May:
Britain passes the Molasses Act putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the Colonies from anyplace other than Britain and its possessions.GoogleBooks JotAR |
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| 1744 | |
| 1752 | | 10 May:
Thomas-François Dalibard validates Benjamin Franklin's conclusion that lightning is electricity.USNA APS |
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| | 15 Jun:
Benjamin Franklin performs his kite experiment.PSU HC |
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| | 14 Sep:
The British Empire adopts the Gregorian calendar.CSL CalWiz |
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| 1753 | | 11 Feb:
The first patients are admitted to the first hospital in America, Pennsylvania Hospital, founded by Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin in 1751.PennMed UMW |
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| 1754 | |
| 1755 | |
| 1758 | | 27 Jul:
British and colonial forces defeat French and Canadian forces at the Battle of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia.BB CTHist |
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| | 25 Nov:
Fort Duquesne is captured from the French, which will later become Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.F&IWS |
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| 1763 | |
| 1764 | | 29 Oct:
The Connecticut Courant, today's Hartford Courant and the nation's oldest newspaper in continuous publication, prints its first issue.LoC Courant |
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| 1765 | | 22 Mar:
The Stamp Act is passed by the British Parliament - a tax imposed on American colonists on any printed paper.GLIoAH Avalon |
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| | 1 Nov:
The Stamp Act goes into effect - a tax on the Colonies to fund the British Military in America.CC SAH |
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| 1770 | | 5 Mar:
The Boston Massacre. British troops kill five colonists.LoC NPS |
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| 1772 | | 9 Jun:
The British customs schooner Gaspée runs aground in Narragansett Bay and is burned by the Rhode Island colonists.Gaspee.org WH |
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| 1773 | | 27 Apr:
British Parliament passes the Tea Act.LoC JotAR |
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| 1774 | |
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| 1775 | | 23 Mar:
Patrick Henry utters his most memorable words: "Give me liberty, or give me death" at the Second Virginia Convention.CW Avalon |
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| | 18 Apr:
Paul Revere rides out to warn the colonists that the British troops were on the march.PRH LoC |
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| | 19 Apr:
The first battles of the American Revolution. British troops fight American Minutemen at Lexington, killing eight. The British then move to Concord where they again engage the colonials. By the end of the battle, 93 colonists are dead. The British, having lost 273, retreat to Boston.LoC NPS |
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| | 10 May:
Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen capture Fort Ticonderoga.NPS VANY |
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| |
| |
| | 17 Jun:
The Battle of Bunker Hill takes place.LoC Yale |
|
| | 22 Jun:
The Continental Congress resolves to issue a paper currency backed by 2 million Spanish milled dollars in order to fund the fight with Britain.POLITICO LoC |
|
| | 30 Jun:
The Continental Congress attempts to notify the king of England that American colonists are unhappy with parliamentary policy by drafting the Articles of War.Avalon LoC |
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| 1776 | | 24 Jan:
After several months, the cannons captured at Fort Ticonderoga make it to Boston.APC AHC |
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| | 3 Apr:
Congress gives to commanders of private ships the authority to capture British ships and cargo.LoC CTDA |
|
| | 4 Jul:
The United States is founded when the Second Continental Congress declares its independence from Great Britain.USHistory USNA |
|
| | 27 Aug:
The British defeat the Americans in the Battle of Long Island.BB MtVernon |
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| | 16 Sep:
George Washington gets his first victory in the Battle of Harlem Heights.MtVernon RW |
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| | 22 Sep:
Nathan Hale is executed by the British for spying.tAW LoC |
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| 1777 | |
| |
| | 15 Nov:
The Articles of Confederation are adopted by the Continental Congress.OurDocs LoC |
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| 1780 | | 19 May:
Smoke from forest fires cause The Dark Day of 1780.NEHS HI |
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| | 21 Sep:
Treasonous American General Benedict Arnold, believing that he was unrewarded for his military successes, meets with British Major John Andre to discuss handing over West Point to the British.NCC LoC |
|
| | 9 Oct:
An expedition sets off from Harvard College to observe a solar eclipse from Penobscot Bay in Maine which is still controlled by Britain.USNA JSTOR |
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| 1781 | | 15 Mar:
British troops under Cornwallis defeat a larger American force at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina.NPS BB |
|
| | 28 Sep:
The Siege of Yorktown begins. American and French forces surround British forces.BB MtVernon |
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| 1783 | |
| 1787 | |
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| 1788 | |
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| 1789 | |
| 1790 | |
the Original Colonies
