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To see all events in all categories, click the "Entire Timeline" link at the top of the page. You can use the form to the left to search for sets of events by entering specific terms or to zoom in on a particular time period. View historical, literary, or commemorative events in New England's past by using the links in the legend below.

Years	Image	Event	Description	Keywords
1524		Verrazano explores NE coast		exploration, settlement, Indians
1603		Martin Pring explores NE coast		exploration, settlement, Indians
1607		Popham Colony planted in Maine		settlement, Maine, archaeology
1608		Separatists go to Holland		pilgrims, Plymouth, settlement
1614		John Smith maps New England		exploration, map, Indians
1614		Dutch explore the Connecticut River		exploration, settlement, Connecticut
1615		seasonal fishing settlements in NH and Maine	exact date not known	fish, New Hampshire, Maine, settlement
1616		An epidemic of uncertain cause devastates southern New England.		Indians, epidemic
1620		English Separatists found Plymouth		Plymouth
1621		English and Wampanoag join in a harvest festival.
1623		Permanent English settlements in New Hampshire		settlement, colony
1624		Pemaquid (Maine) established	This is a conjectural date since the exact time is unknown. This was one of several fishing or fur-trading operations established in the 1620s in northern new England.	settlement, colony, Maine
1628		Maypole at Mount Wollaston (Mass)	Miles Standish commanded an expedition against Thomas Morton's fur-trading post. Plymouth officials feared Morton's men were trading guns with Indians.	Pilgrims, Hawthorne, Standish, maypole, Indian"
1629		Plymouth colonists estabish a trading post at Cushnoc on the Kennebec River in Maine.	Other traders were active nearer the coast.	Plymouth, Indians, settlement
1630		Massachusetts Bay Colony	Although other colonies preceded it, the Bay Colony soon dominated the region because of effective organization and massive migration.	colony, settlement, Puritans
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1633		Small pox epidemic further decimates coastal Indian groups.	A succession of epidemics reduced the Massachusetts by as much as 90%. Other groups were totally wiped out. In contrast, the Narragansetts of Rhode Island were lightly affected.	Indians, epidemic, Rhode Island
1634		Massachusetts immigrants settle Wethersfield and Windsor, Connecticut		Connecticut, colony, settlement
1634		John Endecott defaces King's colors	Radical Puritan John Endecott of Salem believed that the image of the cross was idolatrous. A website for the Popham Colony has a representation of such a flag.	Endicott, Endecott, flag, Hawthorne, Puritans
1635		Roger Williams founds Providence, RI	Banished from the Bay Colony for his religious beliefs, Williams and his followers found refuge among the Narragansetts.	colony, settlement, Indians, Rhode Island
1636		Harvard College founded
1636		Thomas Hooker leads settlement at Hartford.		colony, settlement, Puritans
1637		Anne Hutchinson banished, settles Portsmouth, RI	Among her supporters was Mary Dyer, a future religious martyr.	Rhode Island, Puritans, Hutchinson, Antinomian
1637		Pequot War		Indians
1638		New Haven founded		colony, settlement, Connecticut, Puritan
1642		English Civil War begins
1646		Massachusetts begins to establish "praying towns"		Indian
1647		Alice Young hung in Hartford	May be the first NE execution for witchchraft	witch, Hartford
1648		Massachusetts executes Margaret Jones	This is the first known Massachusetts execution for witchcraft. John Winthrop described her "malignant touch."	witch
1649		Charles I executed
1654		Harvard establishes Indian College		Indian, Harvard
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1656		Ann Hibbens executed.	Hibbens was of somewhat higher status than witches executed earlier. There appears to have been a hiatus in executions for a few years after her death.
1656		First Quaker missionaries arrive in New England	Between 1656-1661, at least 40 Quakers preached in Massachusetts. Some came from England, others from Barbados or Rhode Island	Quaker, Whittier
1657		Lawrance and Cassandra Southwick imprisoned for entertaining Quakers	They were eventually released, then imprisoned again the next year, and finally banished in 1659 on pain of death. The court threatened to sell their children to Barbados.	Quaker, Whittier
1659		Massachusetts executes Quakers		execution
1660		Charles II restored to throne
1660		Mary Dyer executed.	Dyer had been sentenced to death three years earlier but was reprieved on the condition she not return.	Quaker
1660		Mashpee established as a Christian Indian town	Richard Bourne was the first missionary and pastor.	Indian, Mashpee
1660 - 1725		A succession of conflicts transforms indigenous/ colonial relations.	A map from the 1704 Deerfield website shows the colonial Northeast, c, 1660-1725.	Indian war
1661		English Quaker William Leddra hanged in Boston.	In response English Quakers sought a mandamus from King Charles II. A Salem Quaker, Samuel Shattock, who was then in England, delivered it to Governor Endecott.	Quaker, Whittier
1662		Connecticut receives royal charter		charter, Connecticut
1662		Beginning of Hartford witch outbreak.	During 1662-63, accusations against 13 persons resulted in 4 executions.	witch, Hartford
1662		Deborah Wilson ran naked through the streets of Salem.	This was one of several attempts at civil disobedience by Quakers who chose flamboyant efforts to witness against persecution. Like the others, Wilson as whipped at the cart tail.	Quakers
1662		The Wampanoag sachem Wamsutta dies mysteriously.	Wamsutta, also known as Alexander, was Massasoit's oldest son and Metacom (or Philip's) brother.	Indian, Philip
1671		Elizabeth Knapp "possessed of the Devil"	Samuel Willard, a minister at Groton, Massachusetts, wrote about Knapp's exorcism.	witch
1671		Katherine Naylor, the wife of a Boston merchant, sues for divorce.	Her story came to light in the early 1990s as a consequence of excavations associated with Boston's Big Dig.
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1675		King Philip's War	Read a modernized version of Philip's account of Indian grievances originally contained in a narrative by the Rhode Island Quaker, John Easton	Indians, Philip
1677		Surviving Indians confined to Praying Towns		Indian, Philip
1685		Simon Popmonit becomes minister at Mashpee	The first native-born pastor died in 1720. The Mashpee congregation refused to accept Joseph Bourne until he learned to preach in Wampanoag.	Mashpee, Indian
1686		Dominion of New England established		Charter Oak, Andros
1687		Governor Andros challenges Connecticut charter		charter oak, Connecticut, Dominion
1689		King William's War begins	This colonial version of a European war pitted French and Abenaki forces against English settlers and their Indian allies.	Indians
1689		Abenaki kill Richard Waldron in Dover, NH	The attack on Waldon's garrison was in part retaliation for a double cross at the end of King Philip's War.	Indian, Philip, NH
1692		Salem Witch Trials		Salem, witch
1697		Samuel Sewall repents of role in Salem trials		witch
1701		Yale College founded		Connecticut
1702		Queen Anne's War begins	A second round in an ongoing conflict between New France and New England.	Indians
1704		Deerfield Massacre	A winter raid resulted in the deaths or captivities of three-fifths of the town's inhabitants. The attacking force included men from Odanak and Schaghiticoke, where many New England refugees had gathered after King Philip's War.	Indians, French, frontier, captivity" Philip
1706		Benjamin Franklin born in Boston
1711		Massachusetts begins compensating victims of Salem witch trials.		witch
1725		Lovewell's Defeat at Pigwacket	A failed raid in central Maine provoked songs and sermons about the heroism of New England soldiers.	Indians, Maine
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1739		King George's War begins	Another round in the intercolonial wars.	Indians, New France
1739		George Whitfield's first tour
1745		Pigwackets in exile in Massachusetts	Caught between English and French forces, the Pigwackets spent King George's War as refugees in Massachusetts	Indians
1755		Braddock's Defeat
1755		British deport French settlers of Acadia		Evangeline, Acadia, Longfellow
1760		Reuben Cognehew carries Mashpee petition to London		Indian, Mashpee
1763		Treaty of Paris ends 7 Year's War		revolution
1765		Stamp Act Riots		revolution
1766		Hundreds, including slaves and free blacks, begin holding religious meetings in Sarah Osborne's home in Newport, Rhode Island.	Osborne called these my "resting, reaping times." In 1770, she is instrumental in getting Samuel Hopkins installed as pastor of a Newport church.
1767		Townshend Acts		revolution
1768		spinning meetings begin		revolution
1768		Non-importation agreements begin		revolution
1768		British troops arrive in Boston		revolution
1769		Non-consumption agreements begin to appear		revolution
1770		Townshend Acts Repealed		revolution
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1770		11yr old Christopher Seider killed		revolution
1770		Copley paints Paul Revere	Copley's painting and many examples of Revere's silver can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
1770		Boston Massacre	John Adams defends the British soldiers.	revolution
1772		Committees of Correspondence formed		revolution
1773		Boston "Tea Party"		revolution
1773		Massachusetts slaves begin petitioning for freedom		slavery, abolition
1774		First Continental Congress		revolution
1774		John Malcolm tarred and feathered	An example of pre-revolutionary violence and a key episode in the biography of George Robert Twelves Hewes.	revolution
1774		Intolerable Acts		revolution
1774		In December, Paul Revere rides to Portsmouth, New Hampshire		powder revolution
1775		Battles at Lexington and Concord		revolution
1775		George Washington takes command		revolution
1775		In April, Paul Revere attempts to carry news to Concord
1775		Battle of Bunker Hill		revolution
1776		Declaration of Independence		revolution
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1776		British evacuate Boston		revolution
1776		Abigail Adams urges John to "Remember the Ladies
1777		Burgoyne Surrenders at Saratoga
1777		Congress defines American flag
1777		Battle of Saratoga
1777		Battle of Bennington
1780		Benedict Arnold turns traitor
1781		Battle of Yorktown
1781		Articles of Confederation ratified
1781		British attack Fort Griswold and burn New London, Connecticut
1782		Peace negotiations begin
1783		Congress ratifies Articles of Peace
1783		Loyalists evacuate New York
1786		Shay's Rebellion		revolution
1787		Constitutional Convention
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1787		Northwest Ordinance
1788		Constitution ratified
1789		French revolution begins
1790		New England has a million people		population
1791		Vermont joins the union as the 14th state
1800		With 1,400,000 people N.E. contains 28 percent of the U.S. population
1800		Population in Connecticut stagnates while Maine explodes		population distribution
1803		Louisiana Purchase
1804		Lewis and Clark Expedition begins
1805		Rock outcropping in Franconia Notch first noticed by road workers.		Old Man, profile
1806		Black Baptists build a meeting house on Beacon Hill in Boston	The "African Meeting House," now on Boston's Black Heritage Trail, is considered the oldest surviving Black church building in America.	abolition
1810		Congress commissions a census on manufactures	Memories of revolutionary spinning meetings encourage domestic production.	women's work
1812		War with England	sometimes called the "second war for Independence"	revolution
1812		U.S.S. Constitution ("Old Ironsides") fights British.		maritime
1813		Agricultural fairs called "Cattle Shows" begin displaying household manufactures	By the 1820s, the annual shows also include "fancy work."	women's work
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1813		William Nell ships out of Charleston, S.C. as a steward		maritime, abolition
1814		Hartford Convention considers secession		Connecticut, Federalists, revolution
1818		Congress establishes pensions for indigent veterans.		Hewes, revolution
1820		Missouri Compromise guarantees statehood for Maine
1825		Erie Canal completed		economy
1826		Lowell, Massachusetts incorporated		economy, women's work
1828		Female textile workers strike at Dover, N.H.	See documents on the course Web site related to Dover strikes.	women's work
1828		Andrew Jackson elected president
1830		New Hampshire legislature encourages sericulture	In the 1820s and 1830s several states offered bounties. In most places the "silk craze" had collapsed by 1840.	women's work
1830		Indian Removal Act	This eventually led to the forcible removal of 20,000 Cherokees from Georgia to Oklahama along the infamous "Trail of Tears"	Indian, Jackson
1830		Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem raises outcry over supposed abandonment of "Old Ironsides."		maritime
1830		Theodore Dwight, The Northern Traveller (guidbook) mentions "Old Man of the Mountains."		old man, profile
1831		Maria Stewart begins public speeches condemning slavery.	Stewart, a free black, may have been the first women in the U.S. to give public speeches against slavery.	abolition
1831		Mohegan Church built		Indians
1832		Garrison begins "The Liberator"		abolition
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1832		Seth Luther, "An Address to the Working-Men of New England"		labor, women's work
1833		Indian Declaration of Independence	Part of Mashpee Revolt led by "Blind Joe" Amos and William Apes	Indian, Mashpee, Apes
1833		John Greenleaf Whittier joins the abolitionist cause.	Whittier was a close friend of William Lloyd Garrison even before joining the fight against slavery.	slavery, Whittier, abolition
1834		Textile strikes at Lowell, Massachusetts and Dover, N.H.	In this and the 1836 strike at Lowell, workers compared themselves to slaves.	women's work
1834		Shoebinders of Lynn, Massachusetts form a society "for the protection and promotion of Female Industry"	Its leaders helped to form the Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1837.	women's work
1834		Burning of Ursuline convent in Charlestown		immigration, Catholicism
1835		Seaman's Aid Society establishes a "Mariner's Home" in Boston		maritime
1836		Providence ships lists show 30% African American seamen.		maritime
1836		Henry Wadsworth Longfellow begins teaching modern languages at Harvard.	He lasted until 1854, though he complained early on, "Perhaps the worst thing in a college life is this having your mind constantly a playmate for boys,--constantly adapting to them, instead of stretching out and grappling with men's minds." Today Harvard's Longfellow Institute honors American multi-lingualism.
1837		Vermont abolitionists begin sheltering escaped slaves	See an interesting collection of documents and a debate over Vermont's role in the "Underground Railroad" at The Vermont Historical Society
1837		For women, rural outwork is the dominant form of wage labor.	A Massachusetts census shows that almost half of wage workers were braiding palm-leaf and straw for hats.	women's work.
1837		Angeline and Sarah Grimke tour New England		abolition, women
1839		Amistad trial in New Haven		slavery abolition maritime
1840		Agitation for Ten-hour Day		labor
1841		Amistad case argued before the Supreme Court		John Quincy Adams slavery
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1842		Dorr Rebellion in Rhode Island
1845		Beginning of Irish famine		immigration
1846		Mexican War begins
1847		First edition of Frederick Douglass's North Star
1848		Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention
1849		California Gold Rush		economy
1850		At 2,729,000, N.E. composes less than 12 percent of the U.S. population
1850		Fugitive Slave Act		slavery
1850		45 out of 100 New Englanders live in Maine, NH, or Vermont		population distribution
1850		10,000 men employed in whaling on shore or at sea		maritime
1853		Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes a campaign biography for his former Bowdoin classmate Franklin Pierce and is rewarded with a consulship in England.
1854		Anthony Burns arrested under the Fugitive Slave Act		slavery
1856		Senator Charles Sumner caned after delivering his speech "Crime Against Kansas		Longfellow Civil War
1857		Dred Scott Decision		slavery, abolition
1858		Black seamen parade in Boston and Providence to celebrate West Indian independence.		maritime
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1859		Gloucester fleets net almost 30 million pounds of fish.	Fewer than 3 out of 10 fishermen own their own craft.	maritime
1859		Rockport women attack rumsellers.		maritime
1860		Shoe workers strike in Lynn, Massachusetts and neighboring towns.	Female strikers invoke the memory of the revolutionary heroine Molly Stark.	women's work
1861		William Cooper Nell becomes clerk in U.S. Postal Service	He was the first black to receive a federal post.	race
1861		Civil War economy boosts Massachusetts manufacturing		economy
1861		Civil War begins	Lincoln was inaugurated in March; confederates fired on Fort Sumter in April.	Civil War
1863		Lincoln declares Thanksgiving a national holiday
1863		Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address		Civil War
1863		Emancipation Proclamation frees slaves in rebellious states	In a response to an editorial in the New york Tribune, Lincoln had earlier insisted that he would free the slaves only to save the Union. Harriet Beecher Stowe responded in another publication that he should save the Union only to free the slaves.	slavery
1865		Robert E. Lee surrenders		Civil War
1865		13th Amendment outlaws slavery
1865		Klu Klux Klan founded
1865		Abraham Lincoln assassinated
1867		Edmonia Lewis sells busts of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw
1869		Massachusetts enfranchises Indians	This ended the "protected" status that originated in the colonial period. Communities like Mashpee were divided	Indian, franchise
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1870		First transcontinental train leaves Boston on a 39-day journey across the United States		economy
1870		French-Canadian workers fill Northern N.E. mill towns		labor, economy, immigration
1870		Most female wage workers are employed in factories or as household servants.	In Boston, 8 of 10 household servants are foreign born. In textile mills, most are immigrants or the children of immigrants.	women's work, population, immigration
1870		The whaling industry attracts thousands of immigrants from the Azores		immigration
1871		P.T. Barnum founds "The Greatest Show on Earth"
1871		New England whaling ships crushed in ice of coast of Alaska		maritime
1875		Custer defeated at the Battle of Little Bighorn		Indians
1877		Hayes-Tilden Election resolved	A compromise that guaranteed Rutherford Hayes' election also ended reconstruction in the south.
1878		Old Ironsides takes last Atlantic voyage.	After 1897 it is on exhibit in Boston.	maritime
1880		New England fisheries decline		economy, maritime
1880		John Greenleaf Whittier writes poems about Quaker persecution.		Quaker
1885		After moving to Prout's Neck, Maine, Winslow Homer turned to the drama of seafaring.		maritime
1886		Police kill strikers at Haymarket in Chicago	A Chicago Historical Society website lays out the evidence.	labor
1888		Whittier supports women's suffrage.		suffrage, Quaker
1890		Fall River surpasses Lowell as largest producer of printed textiles		labor, economy
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1894		Immigration Restriction League Founded at Harvard		labor, population
1896		Supreme Court accepts doctrine of "separate but equal" in Plessy v. Ferguson
1898		Emily Tyson begins refurbishing Hamilton House in Maine	Now owned by SPNEA, Hamilton House is representative of the fascination of wealthy families with decaying colonial properties.	colonial revival
1900		New England's 5.5 million people make up 7 percent of the U.S. population
1900		75 of 100 New Englanders live in Mass, Conn, or RI		population distribution
1901		President William McKinley assassinated
1903		New Bedford Whaling Museum founded		maritime
1909		NAACP formed
1910		John F. Fitzgerald mayor of Boston
1912		Strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts	For photos and original documents provided by the SUNY-Binghamtom, "Women and Social Movements" Web site see, "The 1912 Lawrence Strike: How Did Immigrant Workers Struggle to Achieve an American Standard of Living?"	labor, economy
1912		Workers at Lowell live in ethnic communities		immigration, labor
1920		19th Amendment gives women the vote
1924		American Indians granted citizenship and the right to vote
1924		Ku Klux Klan has 50,000 members in Maine
1924		Congress passes restrictive immigration laws		population
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1924		First of New England textile mills moves south		labor, economy
1925		Vermont launches a Eugenics Survey		population, immigration
1927		Nicola Sacco and Bartholomeo Vanzetti executed		labor
1930		Nantucket Whaling Museum opened		maritime
1930		Old Man of the Mountain promoted as a tourist attraction.	In the late 1920s the State of New Hampshire began efforts to stabilize the crumbling formation.	profile
1940		Civil leaders of Portuguese descent gather before a mural of the Pilgrim fathers.		immigration
1940		World war II fuels new industries in New England		economy
1950		New England has over 9 million people, 6 percent of the nation's population		population
1954		Brown v. Board of Education overturns "separate but equal"
1955		Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott
1960		Student sit-ins in the south
1963		John F. Kennedy assassinated
1964		Civil Rights Act targets race and sex
1968		Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated
1974		Judge Garrity orders school busing in Boston
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2000		N. E.'s 12 million people compose less than 5 percent of the U.S. population		population
2003		Old Man of the Mountains collapses		profile
2006		Wampanoags receive preliminary recognition by Federal Government.		Mashpee