Timeline for the 13 Colonies
1609: Henry Hudson sails along the New Jersey shore and claims the region for the Netherlands.
1638: Swedish settlers buy land near Cape May.
1664: England gains control of New Jersey.
1746: Princeton University is founded.
1758: Land near Indian Mills is set aside for the Lenni-Lenape people.
1615: Cornelius Hendrickson, a Dutch explorer, sailed up the Delaware River to present-day Philadelphia.
1638: The colony of New Sweden is founded along the Delaware River.
1682: William Penn founds the Pennsylvania colony.
1731: Benjamin Franklin begins the first library in the colonies.
1607: The first English settlers land at Jamestown.
1674-1676: Nathaniel Bacon leads a rebellion against the colonial governor and fights for the rights of the people in West Virginia.
1693: The College of William and Mary is founded in Williamsburg.
1736: Virginias first newspaper is published in Williamsburg.
1650's: The first English colonists arrive in the Albemarle Sound area.
1711-1713: The Tuscarora War ends with the defeat of the Native Americans.
1718: Blackbeard is killed near Ocracoke Island.
1729: North Carolina becomes an English colony.
1620: The pilgrims landed in what is now Massachusetts under a grant to the Plymouth Company. The Mayflower Compact lead them; it was signed before they left.
1621: They celebrated the first Thanksgiving.
1628: The Massachusetts Bay Colony was formed
1630: The city of Boston was formed.
1614: John Smith explored what is now New Hampshire.
1623: Settlers founded New Hampshire's first permanent non-Indian town. Today that town is Hover.
1629: John Mason named New Hampshire after Hampshire, England.
1641: It was part of Massachusetts, but by 1680 it was made a colony by New England.
1636: Rhode Island was settled
UNKNOWN: Roger Williams was driven from Boston for his religious and political beliefs. He bought land and formed Provodience.
1647: It became a colony.
1638: colony founded by Sweden.
1655: colony captured by Dutch.
1665: New Haven becomes part of the Connecticut colony.
1701: Yale University is founded; Hartford and New Haven are twin capitals.
1775-1783: The colonists fight England in the Revolutionary War and win their independence.
1776: Nathen Hale is hanged as a spy by the British.
1649: Maryland passes the Toleration Act, which gives religious freedom to all Christians.
1694: Annapolis becomes Marylands capital.
1776-1777: Baltimore is the U.S. capital.
1625: Colony founded by Peter Stuyvesant.
1664: Colony captured b duke of York and renamed New York.
1785-1790: New York City serves as the U.S. capital.
1788: New York becomes the 11th state.
Content By: Kyle K., Kate L., Andy S., and Sean M.
Page Constructed By: Sarah S.
Date Created: November 22, 2000
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