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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.
1622		Mourt's Relation published in London		pilgrims, Bradford, Plymouth
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
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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
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
1637		Thomas Morton, "New English Canaan"		maypole, pilgrims, Endicott, Hawthorne"
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
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1649		Charles I executed
1650		Anne Bradstreet, "The Tenth Muse"
1654		Harvard establishes Indian College		Indian, Harvard
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		George Bishop, "New England Judged"	This was a Quaker response to John Norton's "New England Rent," an apology for anti-Quaker laws.	Quaker
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
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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
1667		George Bishop, "New England Judged, II"		Quaker
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.
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
1683		Mary Rowlandson's narrative	The birth of the "captivity narrative" as a American genre	Philip, women
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		Cotton Mather, "Wonders of the Invisible World"		witch
1692		Salem Witch Trials		Salem, witch
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1695		Thomas Maule denounces Puritan leaders		Quakers
1697		Samuel Sewall repents of role in Salem trials		witch
1700		Robert Calef, "More Wonders of the Invisible World"	Calef's critique of the trials focused on the credulity and worldly ambition of Cotton Mather.	witch
1701		Yale College founded		Connecticut
1702		Cotton Mather publishes "Magnalia Christi Americana"	This immense history of New England includes biographical vignettes of early ministers and governors, but also stories of captivites and accounts of diabolical possession.	history, Puritans
1702		John Hale publishes "A Modest Inquiry"		witch
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
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
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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
1764		Thomas Hutchinson, "History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay"	An important early history by the later Loyalist governor. Dealt with witchhunting and with the banishment of his ancestor, Anne Hutchinson.	witch, antinomianism, loyalist
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		Forefather's Day celebrated by Plymouth's Old Colony Club
1769		Non-consumption agreements begin to appear		revolution
1770		Phillis Wheatley, "Elegy for George Whitefield"	The British evangelist died at Newburyport, Mass. on September 30, 1770.	slavery, religion
1770		Townshend Acts Repealed		revolution
1770		11yr old Christopher Seider killed		revolution
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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
1770		Paul Revere engraves the events in King Street.		Boston Massacre, Attucks
1772		Paul Revere engraves a "portrait" of King Philip		Indian, Philip
1772		Committees of Correspondence formed		revolution
1773		Boston "Tea Party"		revolution
1773		Mary Rowlandson's narrative reprinted		women, Philip" Philip
1773		Phillis Wheatley, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral"	Additional Information	slavery
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
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1775		In April, Paul Revere attempts to carry news to Concord
1775		Battle of Bunker Hill		revolution
1776		Declaration of Independence		revolution
1776		Samuel Hopkins, A Dialogue Concerning the Slavery of the Africans	An abolitionist argument ddressed to the continental congress.	abolition, Stowe
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
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1783		Congress ratifies Articles of Peace
1783		Loyalists evacuate New York
1783		Boston establishes annual July 4 oration	After the revolution, Independence Day replaced Pope's Day and Boston Massacre orations in public memorials.
1786		Shay's Rebellion		revolution
1787		Constitutional Convention
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
1791		Massachusetts Historical Society founded
1799		East India Marine Society established in Salem, Massachusetts
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
1801		Reprint of French edition of Phillis Wheatley's poems	Wheatley's "Poems on Various Subjects" was included in Joseph Lavalee's "The Negro Equalled by Few Europeans," published in translation in Philadelphia
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1802		Reprint of Phillis Wheatley's poems published in NH
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
1813		William Nell ships out of Charleston, S.C. as a steward		maritime, abolition
1814		Washington Irving, "Philip of Pokanoket"	An early, sympthetic account of King Philip	Indian, Philip
1814		Hartford Convention considers secession		Connecticut, Federalists, revolution
1815		Henry Sargent paints "The Landing of the Fathers"
1815		The Affecting Narrative of Louisa Baker	This was the first in a series of stories eventually gathered as "The Female Marine."	maritime
1817		Pres. James Monroe consecrates Bunker Hill battle site		revolution, memory
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1818		Daniel Wadsworth commissions a portrait of the Charter Oak		charter oak, Connecticut
1818		Congress establishes pensions for indigent veterans.		Hewes, revolution
1818		John Trumbull's painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence displayed at Faneuil Hall		July 4, revolution
1820		Daniel Webster speaks at Plymouth bicentennial
1820		Missouri Compromise guarantees statehood for Maine
1820		Cotton Mather's "Magnalia Christi Americana" reprinted		witch, Puritanism
1820		Witch of New England published	This anonymous work was only the first of several literary treatments of the seventeenth-century witch hunts. Like others, it emphasized the dangers of delusion.
1821		Essex Institute founded
1822		Rhode Island Historical Society founded
1822		Timothy Dwight, "Travels in New England and New York"
1823		New Hampshire Historical Society founded
1823		Calef's "More Wonders of the Invisible World" reprinted		witch
1824		Lydia Sigourney, "Sketches of Connecticut Forty Years Since"
1824		Pilgrim Hall museum opened in Plymouth
1824		A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison published		Indian
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1824		Lydia Maria Child, "Hobomok: A Tale of Early Times"	A distraught Puritan woman marries an Indian.	Indians
1824		Lafayette feted in America		revolution
1824		Bunker Hill monument begun		revolution
1825		Connecticut Historical Society founded		Connecticut, museums
1825		John Winthrop's "History of New England" reprinted		Antinomianism, Puritanism, Hutchinson, Dyer
1825		Erie Canal completed		economy
1826		Lowell, Massachusetts incorporated		economy, women's work
1826		James Fenimore Cooper, "The Last of the Mohicans"	The trope of the disappearing Indian was already well-established by the time Cooper wrote.	Indian
1827		James Fenimore Cooper, "The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish"	A little-known novel about King Philip's War	Indian, Philip
1827		Catharine Sedgwick, "Hope Leslie, or Early Times in Massachusetts"	Features a friendship between a Puritan woman and a Pequot woman.	Indian
1827		Sarah Josepha Hale, "Northwood"		Thanksgiving
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
1829		William Apes publishes "A Son of the Forest"		Indians, Mashpee
1829		First performance of "Metamora"		Indian, Philip
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1829		Charles Goodrich, "A History of the United States of America"	Like other writers of the early republic, Goodrich saw the Salem witch trials as a consequence of fanaticism and delusion.
1829		David Walker, An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World	Published in Boston by a southern black, Walker's "Appeal" helped to spark the abolitionist movement.	abolition, slavery
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
1830 - 1870		Domestic fiction dominates literary market	Hawthorne both admired and denigrated these writers, referring to them "as damned, scribbling females.
1830		Monument erected at Fort Griswold
1831		Charles W. Upham, "Lectures on Witchcraft"	An account by a Unitarian minister who used the Salem story to warn against the dangers of religious and political zeal.	witch
1831		John Greenleaf Whitter, "Legends of New England"	Based on earlier stories written for newspapers, Whittier dealt with witch beliefs as a form of folklore.
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		Nathaniel Hawthorne, "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"	This early story was re-published in 1852	revolution
1831		Mohegan Church built		Indians
1832		Garrison begins "The Liberator"		abolition
1832		Seth Luther, "An Address to the Working-Men of New England"		labor, women's work
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1833		Lydia Maria Child, "An Appeal for that Class of Americans Called Africans"	Child, who had previously published fiction and a cookbook, The American Frugal housewife, became a prominent antislavery writer and activist.	antislavery, abolition
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
1833		Oliver Wendell Holmes, "The Last Leaf"	Describes antiquated survivor of revolution.	revolution
1834		Whittier publishes "The Slave Ship"		slavery, abolition, maritime
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		James Hawkes, A Retrospect of the Boston Tea-Party, with a Memoir of George R.T. hewes"		revolution
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		George Robert Twelves Hewes feted in Providence and Boston	Joseph G. Cole painted his portrait, called "The Centenarian"	Independence Day, July 4, revolution
1835		Benjamin Bussey Thatcher, "Traits of the Tea Party; Being a Memoir of George R.T. Hewes"		revolution
1835		Rhode Island Historical Society collects materials from Indian graves.	This is only one example of New England museums accessioning grave goods, bones, and hair from burial sites deliberately or accidentally disturbed.	museums, bones, Indians
1835		Seaman's Aid Society establishes a "Mariner's Home" in Boston		maritime
1836		John Warner Barber , "Historical Collections of Connecticut"
1836		William Apess. Eulogy on King Philip		Indian, Philip
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1836		Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Maypole at Merrymount"		maypole, Hawthorne
1836		Providence ships lists show 30% African American seamen.		maritime
1836		Eliza Susan Quincy portrays procession at Harvard's 200th Anniversary		Harvard centennial
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		Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Twice-Told Tales"
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		John Sibley publishes story of Washington Elm		revolution
1837		Sarah Grimke, "Letters on the Equality of the Sexes"	With her sister, Angelina, Grimke traveled throughout New England, meeting with female wage workers as well as abolitionists.	women's work
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
1837		Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Endicott and the Red Cross"		flag, cross, Endicott
1837		Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The American Scholar"	"Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close."
1837		Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" sung at the dedication of the North Bridge Battle Monument.	"Here once the embattled farmers stood/And fired the shot heard round the world."	Revolution
1839		Amistad trial in New Haven		slavery abolition maritime
1839		Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Algic Researches	One of many ethnographic works published by the Indian agent and self-taught scientist, it contained a version of the myth of Hiawatha.	Indians
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1840		Agitation for Ten-hour Day		labor
1841		Catharine Williams, "The Neutral French, or the Exiles of Nova Scotia"
1841		Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Skeleton in Armor"		bones, Indians
1841		Catharine Beecher, "A Treatise on Domestic Economy"		women's work
1841		Longfellow, "The Wreck of the Hesperus," in Ballads and Other Poems		maritime
1841		Amistad case argued before the Supreme Court		John Quincy Adams slavery
1842		Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poems on Slavery		slavery, abolition
1842		Dorr Rebellion in Rhode Island
1842		Eleanor Field gives the Rhode Island Historical Society a basket purportedly made during King Philip's War.
1842		With the encouragement of his friend Charles Sumner, Longfellow publishes "Poems on Slavery
1842		Wadsworth Atheneum opens in Hartford	Considered the nation's first public art museum.	Connecticut, museum
1845		New England Historic Genealogical Society Founded
1845		Frederick Douglas publishes his narrative.	He became a powerful voice in both the anti-slavery and women's rights movements.	slavery, abolition
1845		Beginning of Irish famine		immigration
1846		Mexican War begins
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1846		Hawthorne, "Roger Malvyn's Burial" in Mosses From An Old Manse	Hawthorne's story built on an already existing romance about Lovewell's Defeat at Pigwacket in 1725.	Lovewell, Maine, bones
1847		Sarah Hale, ed. of Godey's begins Thanksgiving campaign	For samples of Hale's Thanksgiving editorials, go to "The Godey's Lady's Book" link at the University of Vermont.
1847		John Greenleaf Whittier, "Supernaturalism of New England"		witch, folklore
1847		Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Evangeline"
1847		First edition of Frederick Douglass's North Star
1848		William Oakes, Scenery of the White Mountains	Oakes said that from one angle the profile resembled a "toothless old woman in a mob cap." From the best angle, however, it showed a man with character "fixed and firm."	old man, profile
1848		Elizabeth Ellet. Women of the American Revolution
1848		Thompkins Matteson's "Examination of a Witch" exhibited in New York		witch, painting
1848		James Russell Lowell, "The Courtin'"
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		Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Scarlet Letter"
1850		Fugitive Slave Act		slavery
1850		45 out of 100 New Englanders live in Maine, NH, or Vermont		population distribution
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1850		10,000 men employed in whaling on shore or at sea		maritime
1850		Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Great Stone Face"		old man, profile" mountain
1851		Herman Melville, "Moby Dick"		maritime
1851		Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin"		slavery, abolition
1851		Horace Bushnell speaks at Litchfield County Centennial		Litchfield, Connecticut, homespun
1851		J.W. DeForest, "History of the Indians of Connecticut"
1851		Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The House of the Seven Gables"		witch Salem
1853		Samuel Drake's edition of "Magnalia Christi Americana"
1853		Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes a campaign biography for his former Bowdoin classmate Franklin Pierce and is rewarded with a consulship in England.
1854		Lucy Larcom, "Hannah Binding Shoes"		women's work, maritime
1854		Anthony Burns arrested under the Fugitive Slave Act		slavery
1855		Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Song of Hiawatha"
1855		Herman Melville, "Tartarus of Maids"	In the 1850s, Melville published many short stories and sketches in Harper's and Putnam's magazines.	women's work
1855		William C. Nell, "Colored Patriots of the American Revolution"	Among other stories, Nell featured the role of Crispus Attucks in the "Boston Massacre.	Attucks, Boston Massacre
1856		Charter Oak toppled in a wind storm	The romance of the Charter Oak persists even today.	charter oak, Connecticut
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1856		Benjamin Willey, Incidents in White Mountain History	Earliest published version of a comment later attributed to Daniel Webster. ""Men put out signs representing their different trades; jewellers hang out a monster watch; shoemakers, a huge boot; and, up in Franconia, God Almighty has hung out a sign that in New England he makes men."	profile, old man
1856		Senator Charles Sumner caned after delivering his speech "Crime Against Kansas		Longfellow Civil War
1857		John Greenleaf Whittier, "Skipper Ireson's Ride,"		maritime
1857		Dred Scott Decision		slavery, abolition
1858		Winslow Homer illustrates rural New England life. .	See "Husking Corn," Harper's Weekly, November 13, 1858, in "Selected Slides: Homer"	women's work, homespun
1858		Black seamen parade in Boston and Providence to celebrate West Indian independence.		maritime
1858		Longfellow, "The Courtship of Miles Standish"	Longfellow's poem rivaled Thanksgiving in American memory and helped perpetuate the mystique of the spinning wheel. See The Age of Homespun, page 27.	poetry, pilgrims" plymouth
1858		Crispus Attucks Day celebrated at African Meeting House		revolution, Boston Massacre
1859		Gloucester fleets net almost 30 million pounds of fish.	Fewer than 3 out of 10 fishermen own their own craft.	maritime
1859		Harriet Wilson, "Our Nig, or Sketches from the LIfe of a Free Black"
1859		Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Minister's Wooing	Stowe's hero was a Newport, Rhode Island minister named Samuel Hopkins.	Stowe, abolition, slavery
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
1860		Matthew Brady photographs Edwin Forrest as "Metamora"		Indian, Philip
1861		Longfellow publishes "Paul Revere's Ride" in Atlantic Monthly		revolution
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1861		Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Under the Washington Elm"		revolution
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
1862		Hawthorne published "Chiefly About War Matters" in The Atlantic Monthly	The Liberator denounces the essay, noting that the anonymous author was reported to be Nathaniel Hawthorne.	Civil War
1863		Longfellow , "Tales of a Wayside Inn"
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
1864		U.S. Sanitary Commission sponsors "Colonial Kitchens"
1864		Massachusetts Historical Society published Phillis Wheatley letters
1865		Robert E. Lee surrenders		Civil War
1865		13th Amendment outlaws slavery
1865		Klu Klux Klan founded
1865		Abraham Lincoln assassinated
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1866		John Greenleaf Whittier, "Snowbound"		poetry
1866		Peabody Museum founded at Harvard
1867		Edmonia Lewis sells busts of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw
1868		Winslow Homer illustrates life in Lowell Mills	See "Morning Bell" and "Bell Time" in Selected Slides: Homer. Also see HarpWeek (Hollis e-resources) issues of July 25, 1868 (p. 472) and December 23, 1873 (p. 1116).	women's work
1868		Deerfield first exhibits door from "Indian House"		Deerfield massacre, museum
1869		Massachusetts enfranchises Indians	This ended the "protected" status that originated in the colonial period. Communities like Mashpee were divided	Indian, franchise
1869		Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Old-Town Folks"
1869		American Museum of Natural History founded in New York
1869		Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association founded in Deerfield, Massachusetts		museum
1870		Boston Museum of Fine Arts founded
1870		Metropolitan Museum of Art founded in New York
1870		First transcontinental train leaves Boston on a 39-day journey across the United States		economy
1870		Winslow Homer engraving, "The Dinner Horn"
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
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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
1873		Anne Whitney wins competition to create a sculpture of Samuel Adams for the United States Capitol.	Later the City of Boston installed a bronze version at Faneuil Hall even though in 1874 a Boston commission rejected her sculpture of Charles Sumner because she was a woman.	statue
1875		Custer defeated at the Battle of Little Bighorn		Indians
1876		Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia
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
1879		The Boston Antiquarian Club rescues the Old State House	See the Old State House time-line on the Bostonian Society Web site	revolution
1879		Children give Longfellow a chair from the "spreading chestnut"		trees
1880		New England fisheries decline		economy, maritime
1880		John Greenleaf Whittier writes poems about Quaker persecution.		Quaker
1880		Memorial Hall dedicated in Deerfield	A battered door from the so-called "Indian house" was a prominent feature.	Deerfield, museum, Indian
1881		Nantucket's Coffin House restored		maritime, museum, summer
1881		Controversy over John G. Whittier's "The King's Missive"	In letters to the Boston Daily Advertiser, Whittier and historian George Ellis argued over the imprisonment of Quakers in 17th century Boston.	Quaker, Whittier, poetry
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1881		Winslow Homer seeks the "old ways" in an English fishing village.		maritime
1885		After moving to Prout's Neck, Maine, Winslow Homer turned to the drama of seafaring.		maritime
1885		Boston proposes a statue of Paul Revere	Although Cyrus Dallin completed several models, the city failed to raise the money to complete the statue.	revolution
1886		Police kill strikers at Haymarket in Chicago	A Chicago Historical Society website lays out the evidence.	labor
1887		Ellen Rounds repairs the "Damm Garrison"	In 1915, she donated it to Dover, New Hampshire's new "Woodman Institute."	Indian wars, door, museum
1887		Mass. Historical Society protests Boston Massacre monument		revolution
1887		Edward Bellamy, "Looking Backward"
1888		Crispus Attucks Monument dedicated		revolution
1888		Whittier supports women's suffrage.		suffrage, Quaker
1889		Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association presents a historical pageant	The historical vignettes included Anne Hutchinson's banishment, the Salem witch trials, and the courtship of Priscilla Alden, among other events.	witch, antinomian, Hutchinson, Alden, suffrage
1890		Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Founded
1890		Fall River surpasses Lowell as largest producer of printed textiles		labor, economy
1890		Alice Baker returns to Deerfield to restore her ancestral home, Frary House.		summer
1891		Bennington Battle Monument erected	Harper's Weekly, August 22, 1891: "It is 308 feet high, being the highest battle monument in this country, and nearly 100 feet higher thant he famous one on Bunker Hill.
1893		World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago		centennial
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1893		Alice Morse Earle, "Customs and Fashions of Old New England"
1894		Immigration Restriction League Founded at Harvard		labor, population
1895		Eliza Philbrick creates a "Colonial Gown" for a DAR party in Boston		reproduction
1896		Blue and White Society formed in Deerfield		reproduction
1896		Supreme Court accepts doctrine of "separate but equal" in Plessy v. Ferguson
1897		New England Historic Genealogical Society Admits Women
1897		Boston Society of Arts and Crafts Founded
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
1898		Emily Tyson purchases the 1785 Hamilton House, the setting for Sarah Orne Jewett's "The Tory Lover."		summer
1900		Old Gaol opened in York, Maine		museum
1900		New England's 5.5 million people make up 7 percent of the U.S. population
1900		Plymouth Blanket Society formed to make "rose blankets"
1900		75 of 100 New Englanders live in Mass, Conn, or RI		population distribution
1901		Maine Historical Society opens Wadsworth-Longfellow House		museum
1901		President William McKinley assassinated
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1902		Edith Wharton designs "The Mount" in Lenox, Massachusetts		summer
1902		William Dean Howells purchases a summer home on Kittery Point, Maine		summer
1903		Elizabeth C. B. Buel , "The Tale of the Spinning Wheel"
1903		New Bedford Whaling Museum founded		maritime
1904		Wallace Nutting launches a career as a historical entrepreneur	Wallace Nutting (1861-1941) attempted to record 'that old life in America, which is rapidly passing away.'
1904		Henry James visits the supposed House of the Seven Gables.	James wrote, "Hawthorne's ladder at Salem, in fine, has now quite gone, and we but tread the air if we attempt to set our critical feet on its steps and its rounds.
1905		Paul Revere House saved from demolition	The house, which was in an immigrant neighborhood, was reinvented as an early colonial dwelling. It is still open to the public.	museum
1907		Period rooms opened in Essex Institute		museum
1908		House of Seven Gables Settlement Association founded		witch, Salem, museum, immigration
1909		NAACP formed
1910		John F. Fitzgerald mayor of Boston
1910		Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) founded
1912		Robert Frost, "North 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
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1915		Frank G. Speck, "Decorative Art of the Indian Tribes of Connecticut"
1915		Statue of Anne Hutchinson erected on Beacon Hill
1920		19th Amendment gives women the vote
1922		Antiques Magazine launched
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
1924		First of New England textile mills moves south		labor, economy
1925		Vermont launches a Eugenics Survey		population, immigration
1926		John D. Rockefeller funds Colonial Williamburg in Virginia		museum
1927		Nicola Sacco and Bartholomeo Vanzetti executed		labor
1928		A New York surgeon founds the Abbe Museum on Mount Desert Island, Maine	While summering in Bar Harbor, Dr. Abbe was fascinated by the ancient Native American tools found in nearby shell heaps. As he began collecting these artifacts, he realized the need for safe permanent storage.
1929		Henry Ford funds Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan		museum
1930		Nantucket Whaling Museum opened		maritime
1930		Mystic Seaport maritime museum begins operation
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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
1931		Grant Wood paints :The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
1931		Gladys Tantaquidgeon (1899-2005) founds the Tantaguidgeon Museum at Mohegan.		Mohegan, Indians
1931		Polish Legion of American Veterans chartered.	Invoking the memory of Polish officers who fought in the American revolution, they eventually estabished units in New England.	immigrant
1935		Yankee magazine founded
1935		Wells Historical Museum (precurser to Old Sturbridge Village) open	Read Jack Larkin and Mark Ashton, "Celebrating 50 Years of History" on the museum Web site.
1935		Harold Tantaquidge reconstructs a Mohegan village		museum
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
1942		Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, New York established
1942		Touro Synagogue designated a National Historic Site	. . . the Georgian influenced building is situated on an angle within the property allowing worshippers standing in prayer before the Holy Ark to face east toward Jerusalem.
1947		Old Sturbridge Village created		museum
1947		Plimoth Plantation founded		museum
1947		Shelburne Museum established
1950		New England has over 9 million people, 6 percent of the nation's population		population
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1952		Historic Deerfield founded		museum
1953		Arthur Miller, "The Crucible"	See Web links for Arthur Miller, "Why I wrote 'The Crucible': An artist's answer to politics." and for a Massachusetts curriculum project that connects Miller's play to Salem. Additional Information	witch, Salem
1954		Brown v. Board of Education overturns "separate but equal"
1955		Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott
1958		Strawbery Banke Museum opens in Portsmouth, NH	In 1957 Dorothy M. Vaughan, Portsmouth librarian, was invited to address the local Rotary Club. As she later recalled, 'I decided to lay it right on the line, and tell them what Portsmouth was throwing away each time a house was torn down or a piece of furniture was sold out of town.' Almost before she had finished, a committee was created to see what could be done to save Portsmouth's heritage. The result was a radical new combination of urban renewal and historic preservation. The Puddle Dock neighborhood was to be saved as a historic museum.
1959		Statue of Mary Dyer erected on Beacon Hill
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
1972		Harvard dedicates the so-called "Bradstreet Gate" between the Science Center and the Yard.	The Bradstreet Gate was controversial because it appeared to by-pass the history of Radcliffe. The passage from Bradstreet's writing engraved on the gate was taken out of context. In the original it described her dismay at the raw condition of the settlement in Boston when she first arrived. Perhaps the first female freshmen in the Yard had similiar anxieties. Additional Information
1974		Judge Garrity orders school busing in Boston
1987		Archaeologists begin excavating historic sites threatened by Boston's Big Dig.	Some of the artifacts recovered, including "North America's Oldest Bowling Ball" are on exhibit at the Commonwealth Museum. An interactive website shows the location of the Big Dig in relation to Boston geography as it changed over time. Additional InformationAdditional Information
1990		Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act		Indian, bones
1992		The Last of the Mohicans filmed		Indian
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1996		The Crucible filmed		witch, Salem
1997		"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program" established by the National Park Service.
1997		Irish Hunger Monument erected in Cambridge		immigration
1998		Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center Opens		Indian
2000		N. E.'s 12 million people compose less than 5 percent of the U.S. population		population
2001		Peabody Museum at Harvard continues to repatriate human remains	Check the Harvard website for additional stories on NAGPRA	bones Indians
2001		Boston Massacre Memorial included on a new Irish Heritage Trail.	What was the justification for doing this? Additional Information	immigration
2002		Church at Mohegan restored and museum installed.		Indians
2003		Old Man of the Mountains collapses		profile
2003		Boston Women's Memorial features Phillis Wheatley, Abigail Adams, and Lucy Stone		statue
2004		Memorial Hall Museum launches new website on "The Many Stories of 1704
2006		Wampanoags receive preliminary recognition by Federal Government.		Mashpee