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William Gilbert concludes that the earth is a magnet and coins the term 'magnetic pole'
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Jamestown is established. The first permanent English settlement in America.
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John Smith claims (many years later) that when captured by Indians he was saved from execution by Pocahontas, daughter of the chief
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A shipload of Puritans sail from Boston in Lincolnshire to seek religious freedom in Holland
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News sheets published in Augsburg and Strasbourg become the first known newspapers
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Galileo, with his new powerful telescope, observes the moons of Jupiter and spots moving on the surface of the sun
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A flintlock designed in France becomes the standard firing mechanism for muskets
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The American Indian princess Pocahontas is taken hostage by Jamestown colonists in the first Anglo-Powhatan war
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Pocahontas is baptized a Christian and marries John Rolfe, one of the Jamestown colonists
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the first representative assembly in America, meets for the first time in Virginia.
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First African slaves are brought to America.
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The Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts is established by Pilgrims from England.
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41 male passengers sign the Mayflower Compact, an agreement that forms the basis of the colony's government.
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William Bradford, one of the Pilgrims from the Mayflower, is elected governor of the new Plymouth Colony
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The Mayflower settlers in Plymouth offer thanksgiving for their first harvest, eating turkeys in a celebration shared by local Indians
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Peter Minuit purchases the island of Manhattan from local Indians and calls the place New Amsterdam
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John Winthrop selects the site of Boston for the first Massachusetts settlement
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Rhode Island is founded by Roger Williams as a colony based on the principle of religious tolerance
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War between English colonists and Pequot Indians brings disaster to the Pequots but safeguards the settlement of Connecticut
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The first book published in England's American colonies is Bay Psalm Book, a revised translation of the psalms
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Charles I leads his army into action at Edgehill - the first, but inconclusive, battle in the English Civil War
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Charles I, brought to trial before 135 commissioners in Westminster Hall, refuses to recognise the court's validity
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Charles I is beheaded on a scaffold erected in the street in London's Whitehall
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After a trial lasting a week in Westminster Hall, Charles I is convicted of treason for fighting a war against parliament
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Charles II, in the Hague, inherits the English and Scottish thrones of his executed father, Charles I
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English seize New Amsterdam (city and colony) from the Dutch and rename it New York
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Isaac Newton's experiments with the prism demonstrate the link between wavelength and color in light
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The Dutch scientist Anton van Leeuwenhoek builds a microscope powerful enough for him to observe and describe the red corpuscles in blood
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Gold is found in Brazil, launching the first great American gold rush
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Thomas Savery creates the first practical steam engine, designed to pump water out of mines