Chronology of American History

1492

Aug. 3: Columbus and a crew of 90 depart from Palos in Spain in the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.

Oct. 12: Columbus's expedition lands in the Caribbean. Between October and December, the expedition explores the Bahamas, Cuba, and the northern coast of Hispaniola. Columbus made three later voyages to the New World: from 1493-1496, 1498-1500, and 1502-1504.

1494

June 7: The Treaty of Tordesillas grants lands west of the line of demarcation (370 leagues west of the cape Verde Islands) to Spain and those east of the line to Portugal.

During his four voyages, Columbus explored Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique, Honduras, Nicaragua, Coosta Rica, and Panama.

1497

June 24: John Cabot, who was probably born in Genoa, Italy, claims Newfoundland in behalf of England.

1507

--Martin Waldseemuller's Cosmographiae Introductio is the first to call the New World America.

1513

Apr. 2: Juan Ponce de Leon claims Florida for Spain.

1519

Mar.: Hernando Cortes leads an expedition to Mexico.

Sep. 20: Fernando Magellan sets sail on the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe.

1526

Summer: Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon establishes the first European settlement in the present-day United States at San Migel de Guadalupe on the South Carolina coast.

1556

Sep. 8: The Spanish establish the first permanent European colony in what is now the United States at St. Augustine, Fl.

1565

--John Hawkins introduces smoking of tobacco into England.

1584

--Richard Hakluyt's Discourse Concerning Western Planting argues that New World settlement would benefit England's economy by providing raw materials and markets and putting idle workers to work.

1587

--The "Lost Colony." For the second time, English settlers establish a colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. When a group of colonists returns from England with supplies in 1590, it finds no trace of the settlers; it only finds the word "Croatoan" carved on a tree.

1598

--Juan de Onate begins Spanish settlement of what is now New Mexico.

1607

May 13: The first permanent English colony is founded in Jamestown, Va.

1619

July 30: Virginia's House of Burgesses convenes; it is the first legislative assembly in English North America.

Aug.: A Dutch ship carries 20 blacks to Virginia. We now know that these were not the first blacks to arrive in Virginia.

1620

May 21: The Mayflower Compact, signed by 41 adult males in Provincetown Harbor, Mass., represents the first agreement on self-government in English North America.

Dec. 26: The Pilgrim Separatists land at Plymouth, Mass.

1621

Dec. 25: Massachusetts Governor William Bradford forbids game-playing on Christmas day.

1622

Mar. 22: Indian attacks kill one-third of the English settlers in Virginia.

1624

--John Smith publishes his General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, which describes his rescue by Pocahontas.

May: The Dutch establish the colony of New Netherland.

May 1: The Maypole at Mare Mount. In what is now Quincy, Mass., Thomas Morton and others set up a May Pole, engaged in drinking and dancing with Indian women, and celebrated "the feasts of the Roman Goddes Glora, or the beastly practieses of the Madd Bacchinalians," according to Massachusetts Governor William Bradford. Morton was deported to England.

1632

--Charles I grants Lord Baltimore territory north of the Potomac River, which will become Maryland. Because the royal charter did not restrict settlement to Protestants, Catholics could settle in the colony.

1634

--Massachusetts' sumptuary law forbides the purchae of woolen, linen or silk clothes with silver, gold, silk, or lace on them.

1636

June: After being expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony, Roger Williams founds Rhode Island, which becomes the first English colony to grant complete religious tolerance.

1637

Nov. 7: Massachusetts banishes Anne Hutchinson for preaching that faith alone was sufficient for salvation.

1638

March: The first Swedish colonists settle in Delaware.

1654

--The first Jews arrive in New Amsterdam, fleeing the Spanish Inquisition in Brazil.

1660

May: Massachusetts forbids the celebration of Christmas.

Dec. 1: Parliament adopts the First Navigation Act, which requires all goods carried to and from England to be transported on English ships and that the colonies could export cotton, ginger, sugar, tobacco, and wool exclusively to England. Other Navigation Acts were enacted in 1662, 1663, 1670, and 1673.

1661

Sep.: Governor John Endicott orders an end to persecution of Quakers in Massachusetts, where three Quakers had been executed.

1662 A synod of Massachusetts churches adopts the Halfway Covenant, which permits baptism of children whose parents had not become full church members.

1664

--Maryland adopts a statute denying freedom to slaves who converted to Christianity. A similar act was adopted by Virginia in 1667.

Sep. 7: The Dutch surrender New Netherland to the English, who rename the colony New York. The Dutch temporarily regained possession in 1673 and 1674.

1669

--John Locke drafts the Fundamental Constitutions for the Carolinas, which combines a feudal social order with a stress on religious toleration.

1675

June 24: King Philip's War begins. Relative to the size of the population, this conflict between the New England colonists and the Mohegans, Naragansetts, Nipmucks, Podunks, and Wampanoags was the deadliest in American history.

1676

Sep. 19: Jamestown, Va., is burned during Bacon's Rebellion. Declining tobacco prices, a cattle epidemic, and a belief that the colony's governor had failed to take adequate measures to protect Virginia against Indian attacks contributed to the rebellion, which petered out after its leader, Nathaniel Bacon, died in October 1676.

1681

Mar. 4: Charles II grants William Penn a charter to what is now Pennsylvania.

1682

--Mary Rowlandson publishes an account of her captivity among Indians.

1684

June 21: Charles II revokes Massachusetts' charter on the grounds that it had imposed religious qualifications for voting, discriminated against the Church of England, and set up an illegal mint.

1685

--James II consioldiates the New England colonies into the Dominion of New England and names Sir Edmund Andros governor, who dissolved the New England colonies' assemblies.

1689

--Leisler's Insurrection. Following the overthrow of James II, Jacob Leisler, a German merchant, force New York's governor to flee. He was subsequently executed for treason.

--The first French and Indian war, King William's War begins. Colonists launch attacks on Port Royal, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, and the French and their Indian allies burn Schenectady. The 1697 Treaty of Ryswick restored the pre-war status quo.

Apr. 18: The New England colonies out Royal Governor Edmund Andros.

1692

Mar.: The Salem Witch Scare begin when a group of young girls claims that they have been bewitched. When Massachusetts Goivernor William Phips halted the trials in October, 19 people had been hanged, one man had been crushed to death, and two people had died in prison. In 1697, one of the Salem witch judges, Samuel Sewall, publicly repented his role in the affair.

1700

--population of the British colonies: approximately 275,000. Boston, the largest city, has about 7000 inhabitants.

--Samuel Sewall publishes The Selling of Joseph, one of the first expressions of antislavery thought in the American colonies.

1702

May 4: Queen Anne's War, the second French and Indian War, begins. It lasts until 1713.

1704

Feb. 29: French and Indian forces attack Deerfield, killing fifty and taking a hundred residents captive, in one of the most violent episodes in Queen Anne's War.

Apr. 24: The Boston News-Letter is the first successful newspaper in the British colonies.

1705

--Massachusetts prohibits marriages between whites and blacks.

1711

Sep. 22: The Tuscarora Indian War (1711-13) begins. Surviving Tuscaroras move northward and joint the League of the Six Nations.

1713

Apr. 11: The Treaty of Utrecht ends Queen Anne's War. Fraces cedes Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to Britain.

1716

Jan.: South Carolina settlers, aided by Cherokees, defeat the Yamassee Indians, and move southward into lands claimed by Spain.

1721

May: Connecticut prohibits Sunday travel except for attendance at worship.

1733

May 17: The Molasses Act levies heavy duties on rum and molasses imported from the French and Spanish West Indies.

1734

--The Great Awakening begins in New England, ignited by Jonathan Edwards, who sermons in Northampton, Mass., emphasize human depravity and divine omnipotence.

1735

--Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal is acquited of seditious libel, helping to establish the principle of freedom of the press.

1739

June 9: George II grants James Oglethorpe a charter for Georgia to serve as a buffer against Spain and as a haven for debtors. Georgia was the only one of the original 13 colonies to forbid slavery.

Aug.: George Whitefield, a Methodist preacher, arrives from England, and preaches from New England to Georgia.

Sep. 9: The Stono slave rebellion in South Carolina.

1740

--population of the British colonies: approximately 889,000.

1741

--The Negro Conspiracy of 1741, an alleged plot to burn down New York City, leads authorities to burn 13 blacks alive, hang eight, and transport 71 out of the colony.

1744

--King George's War, the third French and Indian war, begins. It lasts until 1748.

1745

June 16: New Englanders capture Fort Louisbourg, a French stronghold in Nova Scotia. The fort was returned to the French at the end of King George's War, outraging New Englanders.

1751

--Benjamin Franklin publishes his Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, perhaps the most influential essay written by an American colonist.

1752

June: Benjamin Franklin demonstrates that lightning is form of electricity by flying a kite and a key during a thunderstorm.

1754

--30-year-old Benjamin Banneker, an African American, constructs the first clock made entirely in the American colonies.

May 28: The fourth and most important French and Indian War (1754-1763) begins when British and French and Indian forces clash near Fort Duquesne (the site of present-day Pittsburgh) for control of the Ohio River Valley.

July 19: The Albany Congress, called to negotiate a treaty with the Iroquois in event of war with the French, approves Benjamin Franklin's "Plan of the Union" of the colonies, with a president general named by Britain and a grand council with legislative power. The plan was rejected by the colonies and the Crown.

1757

Aug. 10: A day after surrendering to French Gen. Montcalm at Fort William Henry in northeastern New York, many British troops die in an ambush by France's Indian allies. James Fenimore Cooper makes use of this incident in The Last of the Mohicans.

1759

Sept. 13

In the climactic battle of the war, Britain defeats the French on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec. Both French Gen. Montcalm and British commander James Wolfe die in the battle.

1760

--population of the British colonies: approximately 1,610,000.

1763

Feb. 10: France cedes Canada to Britain under the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years' War.

May 7: Pontiac's Rebellion begins when the Ottowa Indian chief leads an attack on Detroit. After failing to receive French aid, the conflict ends in October.

1765

Mar. 22: Parliament passes the Stamp Act, which imposes a tax on all newspapers, legal documents, playing cards, dice, almanacs, and pamphlets, raising the issue of taxation without representation.

Mar. 24: The Quartering Act, which requires the colonies to provide housing and food for British troops stationed in the colonies, goes into effect.

May 29: When Patrick Henry is accused of treason for denouncing the Stamp Act in the Virginia House of Burgesses, he replies: "If this be treatson, make the most of it."

Oct. 7-25: The Stamp Act Congress, consisting of delegates from nine colonies, meets in New York to organize united resistance to the Stamp Act. It calls on the colonies to protest the act by refusing to import goods that require purchase of a stamp.

1765

--The phrase Sons of Liberty refers to opponents of the Stamp Act.

Mar. 17: Under pressure for London merchants, Parliament repeals the Stamp Act.

Mar. 18: Parliament passes the Declaratory Act, asserting its power to pass laws affecting the colonies.

1767

June 29: The Townsend Acts require the colonists to pay an import duty on tea, glass, oil, lead, paper, and paint.

1768

June 9: Customs officials in Boston seize John Hancock's sloop Liberty on the (probably false) charge that it was used for smuggling.

Oct. 1: Two regiments of British troops land in Boston.

1769

--Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan firar, establishes the first California mission.

June 7: Daniel Boone reaches Kentucky for the first time.

1770

--Population: 2,205,000

Mar. 5: Boston Massacre. Around 9 p.m., British troops fire on a crowd of men and boys who are throwing snowballs and chunks of ice at them. Three members of the crowd--Crispus Attucks, James Caldwell, and Samuel Gray--are killed and two others--Patrick Carr and Samuel Maverick--died later of their wounds.

John Adams, assisted by Josiah Quincy, defended the soldiers, arguing that the crowd had rushed the soldiers, taunting them and striking at their muskets with sticks and clubs. Preston and six other defendants were acquitted. Two soldiers, found guilty of manslaughter, were branded on the thumb and dismissed from the army.

Apr. 12: Parliament repeals the all the Townsend duties except the one on tea.

1772

June 10: Colonists near Providence, R.I., burn the British customs schooner Gaspee after it runs aground.

1773

--Harvard College announces that it will no longer rank students in order of social prominence.

--Phyllis Wheatley, the slave of a Boston merchant, publishes Poems on Various Subjects.

May 10: Tea Act. To save the East Indian Company from bankruptcy, the British Parliament authorizes it to sell a huge tea surplus without payment of duty directly to the public, outraging established tea merchants, since the East India Company could undersell them.

Dec. 16: Boston Tea Party. Disguised as Mohawk Indians, a group of approximately 150 protesters boarded three tea ships in Boston harbor and emptied 342 chests of tea worth 18,000 pounds sterling into the water.

1774

Mar. 31: Intolerable Acts. In reprisal for the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament enacts the first of the "Intolerable Acts," closing Boston harbor to all shipping until payment for the destroyed tea was made.

May 20: Two additional "Intolerable Acts" forbid public meetings in Massachusetts unless sanctioned by the royal governor and transfer any trial of a British official accused of a capital offense to England or another colony.

June 2: The Quartering Act, another of the "Intolerable Acts," requires Massachusetts residents to house and feed British troops in private homes.

June 22: The Quebec Act extends the boundaries of Quebec to the Ohio River and guarantees the rights of Catholics and Indians in the region.

Aug. 6: "Mother" Ann Lee, the founder of the Shakers, arrives in New York.

Sep. 5: The First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia; all 13 colonies except Georgia are represented.

Sep. 17: The First Continental Congress approves the Suffolk Resolves, calling for organized opposition to the Intolerable Acts.

1775

Mar. 3: At a convention held in Richmond, Va.'s St. Johns Episcopal Church, Patrick Henry reportedly denounced arbitrary British rule with the stirring words: "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."

Apr. 14: The first antislavery society in the colonies is organized in Philadelphia.

Apr. 19: At the battles of Lexington and Concord, 73 British troops are killed and 200 are wounded or missing in action. The patriot losses were 49 dead and 46 wounded or missing.

May: The Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia.

June 15: Congress selects George Washington to be commander in chief of the Continental Army.

June 17: Battle of Bunker Hill. British forces attacked Patriots on Breed's Hill, which overlooks the sea approach to Boston Harbor. Almost half of the British troops--1,054 out of 2,400--are killed or wounded. American colonel William Prescott is credited with telling his troops: "Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes!"

June 22: The Second Continental Congress issues its first paper money.

1776

Jan.: Thomas Paine arrives in the United States bearing a letter of recommendation by Benjamin Franklin. His pamphlet Common Sense, published on Jan. 10, sold over 100,000 copies in three months.

June 6: At the Second Continental Congress, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduces a resolution that "these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and indpendent states."

July 2: New Jersey gives "all inhabitants" of adult age with a net worth of 50 pounds the right to vote. Women property holders have the vote until 1807, when the state limited the vote to "free, white males."

July 4: Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence. Virginia Richard Henry Lee formally moved for independence on June 6. On June 11, a five-member committee--consisting of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman--was named to produce a draft of a declaration.

Sep. 22: Before being executed by the British for spying, Capt. Nathan Hale says, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

Dec. 19: To bolster the patriots' morale, Thomas Paine publishes The Crisis, which begins: "These are the times that try men's souls."

1777

June 14: The Continental Congress authorizes a flag with 13 red and white stripes and 13 white stars on a field of blue.

July 2: Vermont becomes the first political unit in the world to abolish slavery.

1778

--According to Thomas Jefferson, "30,000 slaves escaped from Virginia in the year of 1778."

Feb. 6: France signs a treaty with the United States.

Dec. 29: The British invade the deep South, capturing Savannah, Ga.

1779

June: Spain declares war on England.

Sep. 23: When British forces on the Serapis demand that John Paul Jones surrender the sinking Bon Homme Richard, Jones replies: "Sir, I have not yet begun to fight."

1780

--U.S. population: 2,781,000.

Sep. 21: Benedict Arnold offers to exchange West Point for 20,000 pounds and a commission as major general in the British army.

1781

--Quork Walker, a slave, successfully petitions for his freedom, basing his plea on the State constitution's declaration that "All men are born free and equal."

Jan. 30: The Articles of Confederation are adopted.

Oct. 19: General Cornwallis's encircled 8000-man army surrenders at Yorktown, Va.

1782

--J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur publishes his Letters from an American Farmer, which asks: "What is an American, this new man?"

--Massachusetts no longer identifies adulterers with a scarlet "A" branded on the skin or sewn on a garment.

1783

--100,000 Loyalists have fled the United States, mainly to Nova Scotia.

Mar. 12-15: The Newburgh Conspiracy. Continental officers threaten to revolt against a "country that tramples on your rights." Washington convinces military leaders to resist sedition.

May 13: Revolutionary Army officers form the Society of Cincinnati.

Sep. 3: The Paris Peace Treaty gives the United States all land east of the Mississippi River, south of Canada, and north of the Floridas.

1785

--Virginia abolishes primogeniture, the practice of conveying an estate to the eldest son.

1787

Jan. 25. Shays Rebellion. Massachusetts farmers, faced with high taxes, eviction, and imprisonment for debt, attack the Springfield arsenal. George Washington writes to James Madison: "If there exists not a power to check them, what security has a man for life, liberty or property?" THomas Jefferson, in Paris, responded differently: "A little revolution now and then is a good thing; the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

May 14: The Constitutional Convention, with George Washington presiding, convenes in Philadelphia.

July 13: The Northwest Ordinance establishes a system of government for the region and prohibits slavery from the territory.

1788

June 21: By a vote of 57 to 47, New Hampshire becomes the 9th state to ratify the Constitution. North Carolina and Rhode Island

rejected the document. In Virginia the vote was 89-79 for approval; in New York, 30-27; and in Massachusetts, 187-168.

1789

--The first American novel, William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy, seeks "to expose the dangerous Consequences of Seducaiton and to set forth the advantages of female Educaiton."

Feb. 4: The Electoral College selects George Washington as president. Washington wrote: "My movement to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution."

July 14: A Paris crowd of 20,000 storms the Bastille, a hated royal fortress. The crowd frees seven prisoners.

Aug. 27: The French National Assembly, inspired in part by the Declaration of Independence, issues the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which proclaims the legal equality of all citizens and freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion.

1790

--U.S. population: 3,929,625.

--Philadelphia's Walnut Street Prison introduces the Pennsylvania system of prison management; prisoners are placed in solitary confinement to isolate them from other offenders and encourage them to reflect on their crimes.

Jan. 14: Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton recommends that the Federal Government assume the national debt and state debts incurred during the Revolution. In exchange for Southern support, northern members of Congress agree to move the U.S. capital to a site located between Maryland and Virginia.

Dec. 21: Samuel Slater opens the first cotton mill in Pawtucket, R.I.