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Getting it's name
Origin of the State name - Named after the Delaware River whose name was given by Captain Samuel Argall from that of Sir Thomas West (Lord de la Warr) who was Virginia Company's first governor. -
Discovery of Delaware Bay
Henry Hudson, an Englishman, under commission the Dutch East India Company and seeking a Northwest passage to China and Japan, discovered Delaware Bay -
Delaware Bay gets it's name
Captain Samuel Argall, an English sea captain, names the bay and river after Lord De La Warr, the governor of Virginia. -
The first settlers
Samuel Blommaert and Samuel Godwyn send a crew to the Delaware Bay area to buy land. The agents purchased, from the Indians, a tract "32 miles long, two miles deep extending from Old Cape Henlopen northward to the mouth of a river." The patent for this land was registered and confirmed on June 1, 1630.
Blommaert and Godwyn appoint David Pietersen De Vries to lead colonization and development of their land. In December 1630, his ship De Walvis (The Whale), under the command of Peter Heyes of Eda -
Delaware becomes a part of New Netherland
The Dutch defeat the Swedes on the Delaware, ending the New Sweden Colony. Delaware becomes a part of New Netherland. -
Rules are made
1663 - 1664: Anglo-Dutch Wars in disputes over rights to slaves, ivory, and gold and domination of the area -
Delaware is an English colony
Sir Robert Carr drives the Dutch off the Delaware and Delaware becomes an English colony. -
William Penn buys Delaware
William Penn was granted land from England, that included Delaware, and established the colony of Pennsylvania. -
French and Indian War
1756 - 1763 - The Seven Years War (French and Indian War) due to disputes over land is won by Great Britain. France gives England all French territory east of the Mississippi River, except New Orleans. The Spanish give up east and west Florida to the English in return for Cuba -
Revolution
1775 - 1783: The American Revolution creates the United States of America. The Revolution was due to the British burden of taxes and total power to legislate any laws governing the American colonies. George Washington led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War (American War of Independence) -
Delaware becomes a state
Delaware became a state on June 15, 1776, when the Delaware Assembly formally adopted a resolution declaring an end to Delaware’s status as a colony of Great Britain and establishing the three counties as an independent state under the authority of “the Government of the Counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex Upon Delaware.” After the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the Delaware Assembly called a special constitutional convention, which -
Independence
United States Declaration of Independence -
Revonlution War
American troops met British troops at Coochs Bridge near Newark. The outnumbered Americans retreated, ending the first and only Revolutionary War battle to be fought in Delaware. -
British move their capitol
The British occupied Wilmington. Soon after, Delaware moved its capital from New Castle to Dover because of the closeness of British troops. -
Government comes to Delaware
Government comes to Delaware. James, the Duke of York, gave Delaware to William Penn in 1682 who said that he needed the land to secure his own colony of Pennsylvania. At first the two colonies were joined and shared the same legislative assembly. After 1701, Delaware was given the right to its own assembly. -
The treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris is signed by the victorious United States and the defeated Great Britain -
Delaware was founded
In 1787 New Sweden, a Swedish trading post and colony, was established at Fort Christina (now in Wilmington) by Peter Minuit at the head of a group of Swedes, Finns and Dutch. The colony of New Sweden lasted for 17 years. Penn granted the three lower countries of Pennisylvania. The countries later broke into Delaware. -
First state to sign the constitution.
Delaware became the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. -
War ended
The War of 1812 between U.S. and Great Britain, ended in a stalemate but confirmed America's Independence -
The american civil war
The American Civil War. In 1858 John Brown Raided Harpers Ferry and set in motion events that led directly to the outbreak of the civil war. -
No more confederacy
The surrender of Robert E. Lee on April 9 1865 signalled the end of the Confederacy -
Baseball in Delaware
Exactly 150 years ago this month, one of Delaware’s first formal baseball teams formed and played its’ first game. Founding members of the Diamond State Base Ball Club met in early October, 1865 near Sixth & Market Streets in Wilmington, Delaware (approximately 100 feet from Old Town Hall) to assign team duties and to issue a challenge to St. Mary’s College for a baseball match. The Civil War and the future National Pastime are indelibly linked. When the war ended, the fledgling sport blossome -
No more slavery
The Abolishment of Slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, thus officially abolishing slavery -
The spanish American War
The Spanish American War. On December 10, 1898 the Treaty of Paris the US annexes Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines.
