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Jamestown founded
The Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. -
First refracting telescope invented
Hans Lippershey demonstrated the first refracting telescope in 1608, made from two lenses. -
First Africans brought to Jameston, VA
About 20 Angolans, kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrived in the British colony of Virginia and then were bought by English colonists. This was the beginning of two and half centuries of slavery in North America. -
First Pilgrims in Plymouth
About 100 people set sail from England on the Mayflower in September 1620. That November, the ship landed on the shores of Cape Cod, which present-day is Massachusetts. In late December the group landed at Plymouth Harbor, where they would form the first permanent settlement of Europeans in New England. -
Second Anglo-Powhatan War
The Second Anglo-Powhatan War was fought from 1622 to 1632 between English colonists in Virginia against the Algonquian-speaking Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy. -
Pequot War
The Pequot War was a conflict between the Native American Pequot tribe and the English immigrants who had established settlements in New England. The primary cause of the Pequot War was the struggle to control trade. -
The Reflecting Telescope was invented
James Gregory invented the first reflecting telescope in 1663. He never actually made the telescope but published the description. -
King Phillip's War
King Philip's War - also known as the First Indian War, the Great Narragansett War or Metacom's Rebellion - was an armed conflict in 1675 to 1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England colonists and their indigenous allies. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion held by Virginia settlers that took place in 1675 through 1676. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon against Colonial Governor William Berkeley. It was the first rebellion in the North American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part. -
Glorious Revolution in England
The Glorious Revolution, also called "The Revolution of 1688" and "The Bloodless Revolution," took place from 1688 to 1689 in England. Motives for the revolution were complex and included both political and religious concerns. The event ultimately changed how England was governed, beginning a political democracy. -
Act of Toleration
The Toleration Act was an Act of the Parliament of England granting freedom of worship to nonconformists. It was one of a series that established the Glorious Revolution in England. -
Leisler's Rebellion
Leisler's Rebellion was a political revolution in New York that began with a sudden collapse of the royal government and ended with the trial and execution of Jacob Leisler. -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearing and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 16 92 and May 1693. More than two hundred people were accused. Thirty were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging.