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1524 Hernando de Soto of Spain discovered the Mississippi River.
1565 The first permanent European colony in North America was founded in St. Augustine (Florida) by the Spanish.
1584 Sir Walter Raleigh landed on Raonake Island and named the surrounding area Virginia, in honor of Queen Elizabeth I of England.
1587 The first English child, Virginia Dare, was born in Raonoke, August 18.
1624 Thirty families of Dutch colonists, sponsored by the Dutch West India Company arrived in New York.
1626 Peter Minuit, a Dutch colonist, bought Manhattan island from Native Americans for 60 guilders and named the island New Amsterdam.
1630 In March, John Winthrop led a Puritan migration of 900 colonists to Massachusetts Bay. There he served as first governor. In September Boston was established as the site of government.
1633 Boston Latin School opened and is thought to be the first public school in America.
1636 In June, Roger Williams founded Providence and Rhode Island. Williams had been banished from Massachusetts for "new and dangerous opinions" calling for political and religious freedoms. It is said, that he had asked for separation of church and state. Naturally such was not considered under Puritan rule. With this Providence started to become a haven for many other colonists who too were fleeing religious intolerance.
1638 Anne Hutchinson was banished from Massachusetts for nonconformist religious views that advocated personal revelation over the role of the clergy. She too traveled with her family to Rhode Island.
1638 The first printing press was set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1646 In Massachusetts, the general court approved a law that made religious heresy punishable by death.
1652 Rhode Island enacted the first law to make slavery illegal.
1663 King Charles II established the colony of Carolina and granted the territory to eight loyal supporters.
1664 The Dutch New Netherlands colony became English New York after Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrendered to the British following a naval blockade.
1664 Maryland passed a law making lifelong servitude for black slaves mandatory to prevent them from taking advantage of legal precedents established in England which granted freedom under certain conditions.
1672 The Royal Africa Company was given a monopoly in the English slave trade.
1673 Dutch military forces retook New York from the British.
1674 The Treaty of Westminster ended hostilities between the Dutch and the English and returned Dutch colonies in America to England.
1682 The French explorer La Salle explored the lower Mississippi valley and claimed it for France. He named the area Louisiana for King Louis XIV.
1685 The Duke of York ascended the British throne as James II.
1686 King James II consolidated the colonies of New England into one single Dominion depriving with such all colonists of their local political rights and independence. Legislatures was dissolved and the King's representatives assumed full powers over law and courts.
1687 In March, New England royal governor, Sir Edmund Andros,
ordered Boston's Old South Meeting House to be converted into an Anglican Church. last updated 01/09/09 |
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