Quill and Pen A Chronology of History

Events Which Influenced and Shaped the United States

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1600 - 1699: Emergence
DATEEVENT
1600The first opera, J. Peri's Euridice, performed in Florence; this also marks the beginning of the Baroque period which ends in 1750 with the death of Johann S. Bach.
1602Cape Cod named by Bartholemew Gosnold, English navigator.
1603Elizabeth I dies at 70. Last of the Tudors.
1603Samuel de Champlain explores St. Lawrence River and Niagara Falls.
1603Martin Pring explores New Hampshire coast.
1605French trading post established at Port Royal, Nova Scotia.
1605Weymouth explores New England coast.
1606First charter granted to the Virginia Company, named after
Elizabeth I, The Virgin Queen.
1606Starving times: Excerpts from General Historie of Virginia by John Smith.
1607Captain John Smith first encounters Iroquois in Chesapeake Bay.
1607Jamestown founded. First permanent English colony in New World.
1607English colony at Fort St. George, on Kennebec River, Maine.
1608John Smith is elected president of the Jamestown colony council in Virginia; September 10.
1608Samuel de Champlain's own account of founding village of Quebec.
1609Champlain makes war against the Iroquois, first use of guns on Indians.
1609Hendrik "Henry" Hudson explores river valley named for him; September 12 enters the now Hudson river.
1609East Anglia Puritans leave England for Leiden, Holland for 10 year stay.
1609Dutch establish Fort Orange, later Albany NY, as fur trading post.
1609Henry Hudson explores east coast of North America for Netherlands.
1609Santa Fe, New Mexico, settled by Spanish colonist.
1609Kepler describes planetary motions and laws.
1610Henry Hudson discovers Hudson's Bay.
1610Thomas West, 3rd Lord de la Warr rescues Jamestown colony from starvation.
1610The Church at Jamestown. Description of the church within the palisade at Jamestown.
1612England colonizes Bermuda.
1612French explorers discover Lake Huron..
1613John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas, cross-breeds tobacco successfully.
1614Thomas Hunt kidnaps 24 Indians from Cape Cod area, sells them as slaves.
1615French under Champlain trade with local Indians on Georgian Bay.
1616Pocahontas visits England, poses for portrait; dies there.
1616John Smith begins to pen A Description of New England; published:
Advertisements For the Inexperienced Planters of New-England, 1631.
1616White settlers introduce small pox to New England. Many Indians die.
1617Francis Bacon, English philosopher and essayist; made lord keeper of the seal -
a position held by his father.
1619Contract of Indenture; sample contract for indentured servants.
1619Black slavery introduced at Jamestown by Dutch traders.
1619First legislative assembly in America, in Virginia, July 30.
1619Descartes (November, 19) has a vision of a new mathematical and scientific system.
1620Charter of New England granted by King James to a proprietary group.
1620Slide rule invented by Oughtred, in England.
1620Puritan Pilgrims write Mayflower Compact, land at Plymouth Rock.
1621Sir Francis Bacon; Charged with bribery and jailed in the Tower of London.
1621Pilgrims have first contact with Indian (Squanto), who greets them in English!
1622Maine granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason.
1623Champlain's expedition trades for furs with Indians on Lake Superior.
1623Indentured servant writes letter home and describes the miserable life.
1623Settlements begin in New Hampshire.
1624Virginia becomes a royal colony.
1626Indians barter away Manhattan for about $24.00; Dutch begin settlements.
1628English Parliament enacts Petition of Right. Sir Edward Coke makes presentation.
1628Descartes writes Rules for the Direction of the Mind.
1629Charter of Massachusetts Bay granted March 4.
1629New Netherland granted Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions.
1629Puritans settle Boston area, call themselves The Massachusetts-Bay Co.
1630Johannes Kepler, German astronomer dies. First astronomer to openly agree with Copernicus.
1630Puritans hang John Billington, a murderer; a first for the colony.
1631John Smith's Adv. For the unexperienced Planters of New-England;
Printed in London by Iohn Haviland, to be sold by Robert Milbovrne.
1631A Letter to Father and Mother: Pond to William Pond.
1632Maryland named for Queen Henrietta Maria by English King Charles I.
Charter granted June 20.
1632"Oyster War" begins between VA and MD; continues today.
1633Galileo condemned by the Church. GALILEO'S ABJURATION.
1634Jean Nicolet explores Lake Michigan shore and Wisconsin.
1635Roger Williams banished from Massachusetts for espousing democracy.
1635First settlements in Connecticut include Hartford and Windsor.
1636First college in the colonies, later named after Rev. John Harvard.
1636Providence Plantations founded in Rhode Island by Roger Williams.
1637Pequot War in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
1637Description of the Indians in New England. Of their Houses and Habitations.
1637Mrs Anne Hutchinson tried in court and banished for holding worship services in her home.
1637Descartes publishes the Discourse on the Method including the Optics, Meteorology and Geometry.
1638Swedish colony introduces log-cabin building near Wilmington, Delaware.
1639The Fundamental Orders unite three communities in "Connectecotte."
1639Harvard College sets up first printing press in colonies.
1640Bay Psalm Book: First English book published in colonies at Cambridge, MA.
1641Body of Liberties adopted in Massachusetts.
1641Descartes publishes Meditations on First Philosophy along with the first six sets of Objections and Replies.
1642Massachusetts Bay School Law See also The Old Deluder Act of 1647.
1642Pascal invents an adding machine.
1642French develop new trading post at Montreal.
1643New England Confederation founded. These are the Articles of Confederation.
1644Lex Rex [law is king] a Scottish minister, Samuel Rutherford, demolishes the doctrine of the divine right of kings.
1644AREOPAGITICA: John Milton's Speech in Parliament for unlicenced printing.
1644Invention of the barometer by Evangelista Torricelli.
1644First bicameral legislature formed in Massachusetts.
1644Roger Williams publishes The Bloody Tenet of Persecution.
1644Descartes publishes the Principles of Philosophy.
1645First ironworks, at Saugus, MA.
1647The Old Deluder Act requiring all towns with 50 families to appoint a schoolmaster.
See also Massachusetts Bay School Law of 1642.
1648Iroquois defeat the Hurons, drive them into Canada, north of the Lakes.
1648Treaty of Westphalia, Peace Treaty between the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of France.
1649Charles I executed; Oliver Cromwell establishes Commonwealth.
1649Agreement of the Free People of England. "As a Peace-Offering to this distressed Nation"
1649Toleration Act enacted by First Assembly in Maryland freeing religion.
1649Descartes publishes The Passions of the Soul; goes to Sweden at the invitation of Queen Christina, where he dies the following year.
????Misfortunes of Indentured Servants. The date of this document is unknown but is compelling reading.
16??Slave Codes begin to appear in the colonies to deal with "unruly" blacks.
1650The Taj Mahal is completed at Agra, India, by 20,000 workers over 20 years.
1651Sumptuary law of MA mandates kind of clothing which must be worn by the citizens.
1651Navigation Acts require English ships and crews for all imports.
1653Oliver Cromwell becomes ruler of England.
1653Commonwealth Instrument of Government adopted by Cromwell and his Council of Officers.
1653Iroquois defeat the Erie Nation, extend influence into o-he-you (Ohio).
1654Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, theologian and philosopher; - and laws of probability.
1656New Netherland Council passes ordinance restricting religion.
1656A Healing Question, expounding the principles of civil and religious liberty.
1656Spinoza excommunicated by the Jewish community in Amsterdam.
1657Rhode Island Assembly adopts freedom of religion; it doesn't last.
1657John Washington jumps ship in Virginia, buys land.
1657Remonstrance of the Inhabitants of the town of Flushing, NY, to Gov. Stuyvesant.
1660Restoration of Charles II to the English throne.
1660Declaration of Breda, a granting of freedom of religious opinion.
1661Virginia Fornication Laws. "For restraint of the filthy sin of fornication."
1662Charter of Connecticut granted April 23.
1663Charter of North Carolina granted March 24.
1663Charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations - July 8.
1663John Eliot translates Bible into an Indian tongue.
1663Spinoza publishes the Principles of Cartesian Philosophy.
1664The Currency Act, to prohibit use of any legal notes except the British pound.
1664Dutch give up control of New Amsterdam.
1665Duke of York establishes Duke's Law, renames New Amsterdam for himself.
1666The Declaratory Act, passed to assert British authority over the colonies.
1666Description of the Province of Carolina, to entice English people to migrate to the colony.
1668Sault Ste. Marie established by French missionaries.
1669Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle explores Ohio River valley.
1669Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina inaugurated.
1670Newton gives the world Calculus.
1670Spinoza publishes the Theologico-Politcal Treatise.
1670Grant from Charles II leads to settlement of Charleston, SC.
1670Hudson's Bay Company founded to compete with French fur traders.
1673Iroquois drive Mosopelea Indians from Southwestern Ohio.
1673Marquette and Joliet explore northern parts of Mississippi valley.
1675"King Philip's War" begins retaliatory Indian war against white invaders.
1676Bacon's Rebellion wages vigilante war in Virginia.
1676"Day of Thanksgiving", first formal declaration, June 20, Charlestown, MA.
1677Spinoza's works posthumously published, including the Ethics.
1679New Hampshire settlements proclaimed a royal colony.
1679Habeas Corpus Amendment Act in England.
1680Second Bill to Exclude the Duke of York from inheriting the crown because of his religion.
1680Pueblo Indians get horses from Spanish; first Plains Indians to do so.
1681Province of Pennsylvania (Penn's Woods) chartered February 28.
1682William Penn arrives in America, first look at Penn's Woods.
1682Penn publishes Frame of Government. Philadelphia founded.
1682LaSalle explores Mississippi River, claims river valley for France.
1684Charles II annuls 1629 charter of Massachusetts colony.
1684Cotton Mather coins the term "Americans" for colonists.
1684A patent is granted for the thimble.
1685Louis XIV cancels Edict of Nantes, thousands flee to the colonies.
1685Description of King Philip's War. War between colonists and the Indians in New England.
1688Mennonites in Germantown, PA, become first major group to protest slavery in writing.
1688The Glorious Revolution establishes Parliamentary supremacy.
1689Bill of Rights enacted by English Parliament. Provides religious freedom.
1689Locke publishes the Essay Concerning Human Understanding and the Letter Concerning Toleration.
1690Publick Occurrences, Boston newspaper, becomes first to be banned in the colonies.
1690Locke publishes the Two Treatises of Civil Government anonymously.
1691Plymouth becomes part of royal colony of Massachusetts.
1692Witch hunts in Salem, MA; 19 die.
1693William and Mary becomes second college in the colonies, Feb 6.
1693Champagne is invented by Dom Perignon, August 4.
1695Freedom of the press comes to England. Censorship abolished.
1696Habeas Corpus Act suspended in England.
1696Board of Trade takes over administration of the colonies -
John Locke is its most influential member until 1700.
1697Penn proposes a Plan of Union for the English Colonies in America.
1697King William's War ends. Began in 1689
1697Pierre Bayle, French philosopher, publishes his Historical and Critical Dictionary.
1698Cotton Mather publishes story about Squanto.
1698Pensacola founded (again). (Spanish had tried there in 1559).
1698An Account of W. Jersey and Pennsylvania by Gabriel Thomas.
 
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