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Founding of Jamestown
Settlers sent to set up the first permanent English settlement in America by the London Company. Upon arriving they held the first colonial council and they chose Edward Wingfield to serve as their first president. -
The House of Burgesses Convenes for the First Time
n Jamestown, Virginia, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World--the House of Burgesses--convenes in the choir of the town's church. -
Founding of Plymouth
In Septembe 1620, 100 men and women set sail aboard the Mayflower to the New World. Two months later they landed on the shores of Cape Cod, and in December would anchor at Plymouth Rock and form the first permanent European settlement in New England. -
English seize New Amsterdam(city and colony) and Rename it New York
Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrenders New Amsterdam, the capital of New Netherland, to an English naval squadron under Colonel Richard Nicolls. Stuyvesant had hoped to resist the English, but he was an unpopular ruler, and his Dutch subjects refused to rally around him. Following its capture, New Amsterdam's name was changed to New York, in honor of the Duke of York, who organized the mission. -
France acquires the Louisiana territory
French explorer Robert Cavalier de La Salle claimed the territory of Louisiana, which he named for King Louis XIV, during a canoe expidition down the Mississippi River that was funded by Jean Baptiste Colbert.