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The Jamestown Settlement is established
In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to start a settlement. On May 13 they picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America. -
Plymouth is founded by the pilgrims
Plymouth Colony First colonial settlement in New England (founded 1620). The settlers were a group of about 100 Puritan Separatist Pilgrims, who sailed on the Mayflower and settled on what is now Cape Cod bay, Massachusetts. They named the first town after their port of departure. -
Massachusetts is Founded
The King of England grants a charter to a group of Puritans to allow them to form a colony along the Massachusetts Bay. The Puritans form the colony of Massachusetts as a place to spread their religion and extend the empire of Great Britain. -
Puritans founded the city of Boston
Officially founded in 1630 by English Puritans who fled to the new land to pursue religious freedom, Boston is considered by many to be the birthplace of the American Revolution. -
Lord Calvert, the first Baron of Baltimore, is granted a charter for the Colony of Maryland
In 1632, King Charles I of England granted a charter to George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, yielding him proprietary rights to a region east of the Potomac River in exchange for a share of the income derived from the land. -
Thomas Hooker moves to Connecticut and establishes what will become the Connecticut Colony
This effectively suppressed Puritans from voting if their beliefs were in opposition to the majority religion. Therefore, in 1636, Hooker and Reverend Samuel Stone led a group of settlers to form Hartford in the soon to be formed Connecticut Colony. -
New Sweden is founded along the Delaware River
New Sweden (Swedish: Nya Sverige; Finnish: Uusi Ruotsi; Latin: Nova Svecia) was a Swedish colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in America from 1638 to 1655, established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great military power. -
The Quakers arrive in New England
Also known as the Religious Society of Friends, Quakers have a long and dynamic history in New England. When they first arrived in the region in the 1650s, Quakers presented both a radical alternative and a significant challenge to Puritan orthodox -
The city of Charlestown, South Carolina is founded.
Charleston is the seat of Charleston County founded in 1670. It is the oldest and second-largest city in South Carolina. -
The city of Philadelphia is founded
The written history of Philadelphia begins in 1682, when the city was founded by William Penn in the English Crown Province of Pennsylvania between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. -
The Colony of New Jersey is formed by the merging of East and West Jersey.
From 1701 to 1765, colonists skirmished in the New York-New Jersey Line War over disputed colonial boundaries. In 1702, Queen Anne united West and East Jersey into one Royal Colony—the Province of New Jersey. -
The Province of Georgia is formed by James Oglethorpe.
After years of planning and two months crossing the Atlantic, James Oglethorpe and 114 colonists climbed 40 feet up the bluff from the Savannah River on this day in 1733 and founded the colony of Georgia. George II granted the Georgia trustees a charter for the colony a year earlier. -
The College of New Jersey is founded. It will later become Princeton University
The College of New Jersey, founded in 1746, changed its name to Princeton University during the culmination of the institution's Sesquicentennial Celebration in 1896. Historically, the University was often referred to as “Nassau,” “Nassau Hall,” “Princeton College,” or “Old North.” -
The Liberty Bell is cracked when it is first rung in testing
The crack is a big subject of debate among historians. One theory is the Bell got its first crack in 1752 when it was tested upon its arrival in Philadelphia -
Bostonian colonists protest the Tea Act with the Boston Tea Party
In Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor.
The midnight raid, popularly known as the “Boston Tea Party,” was in protest of the British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. -
The First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The First Continental Congress convened in Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between September 5 and October 26, 1774. Delegates from twelve of Britain's thirteen American colonies met to discuss America's future under growing British aggression.