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United States &gt; United States History

Brief History
The following important events in the history of United States affected political jurisdictions, family movements, and record keeping.


 * 1492: Christopher Columbus sails across the Atlantic Ocean and reaches an island in the Bahamas in the Caribbean Sea.
 * 1513: Juan Ponce de León explores the Florida coast.
 * 1524: Giovanni da Verrazano explores the coast from Carolina north to Nova Scotia, enters New York harbor.
 * 1540: Francisco Vásquez de Coronado explores the Southwest.
 * 1565: St. Augustine, Florida, the first town established by Europeans in the United States, is founded by the Spanish. Later burned by the English in 1586.
 * 1607: Jamestown, Virginia, the first English settlement in North America, is founded by Captain John Smith and English gold seekers
 * 1609: Henry Hudson sails into New York Harbor, explores Hudson River. Spaniards settle Santa Fe, New Mexico.
 * 1614: Dutch claim New Netherland.
 * 1619: The first African slaves are brought to Jamestown. (Slavery is made legal in 1650.)
 * 1620: Pilgrims from England arrive at Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the Mayflower.
 * 1626: Peter Minuit buys Manhattan island for the Dutch from Man-a-hat-a Indians for goods worth $24. The island is renamed New Amsterdam.
 * 1630: Boston is founded by Massachusetts colonists led by John Winthrop.
 * 1634: Maryland is founded as a Catholic colony, with religious freedom for all granted in 1649.
 * 1640: French and Iroquois Wars escalate to full warfare.
 * 1664: The English seize New Amsterdam from the Dutch. The city is renamed New York.
 * 1677: Province of Maine absorbed by Massachusetts Bay Colony
 * 1699: French settlers move into Mississippi and Louisiana.
 * 1670: Charles Town (Charleston) founded in present-day South Carolina
 * 1672-1673: Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette explore the Illinois Country
 * 1682: Province of Pennsylvania founded by William Penn
 * 1687: Yamasee Indians from Spanish Florida move to South Carolina, becoming an important ally of the British
 * 1689: December 16; The English Parliament adopts a Bill of Rights.
 * 1692: Salem witchcraft trials in Salem Colony in Salem, Massachusetts
 * 1698: Pensacola, Florida established by the Spanish
 * 1699: Biloxi, Mississippi by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville
 * 1702: Queen Anne's War (War of the Spanish Succession) begins; The name "Queen Anne's War" is used only in the United States. It is call the War of the Spanish Succession by Canada, Britain, and France.
 * 1702: East Jersey and West Jersey become crown colonies
 * 1704: February 28; The French/Indian forces destroy Deerfield, Massachussetts.
 * 1712: January 28; American forces attack the Tuscarora Indians during the Tuscarora Indian War.
 * 1729: Province of Carolina proprietors sell out to Crown
 * 1732: First Great Awakening
 * 1706 - 1790: Benjamin Franklin was a great American leader, printer, scientist, and writer.
 * 1751: Georgia became a slave state
 * 1752: Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment
 * 1752: September 2; Britain and the colonies under its control adopt the Gregorian calendar.
 * 1754: French and Indian War begins, part of the Seven Years' War
 * 1754: Albany Congress, in which a "Union of Colonies" is proposed.
 * 1758: Treaty of Easton
 * 1759: Battle of the Plains of Abraham, part of the Battle of Quebec (1759
 * 1754 -1763: French and Indian War between England and France. The French are defeated and lose their lands in Canada and the American Midwest.
 * 1760: Jeffrey Amherst becomes the First British Governor-General of North America, replacing Pierre de Rigaud, Governor of New France
 * 1764-1766: England places taxes on sugar that comes from their North American colonies. England also requires colonists to buy stamps to help pay for royal troops. Colonists protest, and the Stamp Act is repealed in 1766.
 * 1770: March 5; The Boston Massacre: English troops fire on a rock throwing crowd protesting English taxes.
 * 1771: May 16; Battle of Alamance in North Carolina
 * 1772: June 9; The 1st naval Battle of the American Revolution off the coast of Rhode Island. The Gaspée Affair.
 * 1772: The Watauga Association in what would become Tennessee declares itself independent.
 * 1773 May 10; The Parliament passes the Tea Act
 * 1773: Association of the Sons of Liberty in New York published by local Sons of Liberty (December 15)
 * 1773: December 16; Boston Tea Party: English tea is thrown into the harbor by residents disguised as indians to protest a tax on tea.


 * 1774: Dunmore's War
 * 1774: June 2; Martail Law is declared in Massachussetts.
 * 1774: October 26; The Minute Men are established in America.


 * 1775: Fighting at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, marks the beginning of the American Revolution.
 * 1774 to 1783: Revolutionary War
 * 1776: July 4; The Declaration of Independence is approved by the Continental Congress (made up of representatives from the American colonies).
 * 1781: British General Cornwallis surrenders to the Americans at Yorktown, Virginia, ending the fighting in the Revolutionary War.
 * 1783: September 3; The Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolutionary War
 * 1783: The British withdraw from ports in New York and the Carolinas
 * 1784: "The state of Frankland," later known as Franklin, secedes from North Carolina
 * 1785: Congress refuses admission of Franklin to the Union
 * 1787: Northwest Ordinance of 1787 created the first organized territory in the United States out of the region south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River.
 * 1787:May 25 to September 17; Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia the result of which is the United States Constitution.
 * 1787: Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey ratify the constitution


 * 1788: North Carolina reconquers Franklin, which ceases to exist.
 * 1788: Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia and New York ratify the constitution
 * 1789: U.S. presidential election, 1789
 * 1789: Constitution goes into effect
 * 1789: George Washington becomes President
 * 1789: North Carolina ratifies the constitution