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Samuel Champlain battles an Iroquois party after his further exploration of the New World discovers Lake Champlain in early July and claims Vermont for the Kingdom of France.
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King James version of the Bible published for the first time.
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Smallpox epidemic wipes out 90% of the Native Americans in the Massachusetts Bay area.
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First representative assembly, the House of Burgesses, held in America is elected in Jamestown. The next month, the Dutch land with indentured servants, African slaves, in Jamestown.
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A landing party searches the coast for a suitable site for a settlement and start to move the entire party to Plymouth Harbor. Plymouth Rock was identified as the first solid land the Pilgrims set foot on
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The Puritans begin to establish settlement in Plymouth. They form the Mayflower Compact, which established a government and legal structure. During the next winter, half of the colonists would perish. Site of the settlement had previously been the location of an Indian village that had been wiped out in 1617 by a plague.
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The first Thanksgiving celebration is held in the autumn for three days between the Pilgrims and members of the Wampanoag tribe, who had helped them settle and plant the colony's land.
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King Charles receives a Petition of Rights from the English Parliament to gain royal subsidies. Petition of Rights would influence the Massachusetts Bay Colony's Body of Liberties and the 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
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Royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay Colony granted by King Charles I, further establishing the colony and leading to its expansion.
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The first vessels of Winthrop's eleven ship fleet, eventually totaling seven hundred aboard, leaves England for the Puritan colony already established in Salem, establishing the foundation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
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Maryland is founded as a Catholic colony promoting religious tolerance. The subsequent state is named for Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of England's Charles I.
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Harvard College is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the first college to be established in North America.
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Witchcraft is made a capital crime in English law. The Massachusetts colony becomes the first colony to legalize slavery.
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In the last Indian rebellion in the region, Opchanacanough and the Powhatan Indians attack the English at Jamestown, but their effort is repulsed and proves unsuccessful.
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The constitution of the General Assembly of Rhode Island is drafted, under the values of separating church and state, as well as permitting public referendums and initiatives in legislation.
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Maryland passes the Maryland Toleration Act, allowing freedom of religion.
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Slavery is legalized in Connecticut and recognized in the American colonies.
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Treaty of Hartford signed between the Colony of Connecticut and New Netherlands, trading claims along the Connecticut River for land on Long Island.
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English Parliament passes the first in a series of Navigation Acts, banning use of anything but English ships in commerce with its colonies.
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Rhode Island passes the first law in the American colonies restricting slavery, making it illegal for more than ten years.
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Peach Tree War begins with attack on New Amsterdam and Pavonia along Hudson (North) River by Susquehannock Indians and their allies as retaliation for the loss of New Sweden to the Dutch. Indian victory forced many Dutch settlers back to Fort Amsterdam.
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Colony of New Sweden in today's Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey is defeated by Dutch and incorporated into the Colony of New Netherlands.
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The second piece of legislation in the series of Navigation acts is passed by British Parliament to continue to control colonial commerce in the New World.
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Colonies of Connecticut and New Haven unite under new Royal charter granted by King Charles II to John Winthrop, the Younger, Governor of the Connecticut Colony.
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Three hundred British troops seize New Netherlands from the Dutch in a peaceful takeover. The Duke of York, brother to Charles II, is granted the Dutch province and city of New Amsterdam, renaming them New York.
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Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War, with colonial boundaries set between Acadia, recognized as part of New France, the British colonies of New England, and the Dutch colonies around the world.
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Johann Lederer leads expedition from the York River into the Appalachian Mountains at the behest of Colonial Governor Sir William Berkeley, who believed a passage to the west and Indian Ocean only a few weeks away. Lederer becomes the first European to crest Blue Ridge Mountains and see the Shenandoah Valley.
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Hudson's Bay Company founded as English firm to combat New France in Canadian fur trade. Company would eventually flourish as dominant commercial enterprise from the colonies of the East Coast of America to the Pacific Northwest territories of Washington and Oregon, as well as British Columbia.
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Dutch forces recapture the colony of New York (New Amsterdam) from the British, but would only be able to hold power in the area for one year.
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Treaty of Westminster ends the Third Anglo-Dutch War between England and the Netherlands, and officially cedes New Amsterdam, New York, to England.
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Beginning of King Philip's War in New England with Metacom Indian forces attacking colonial settlements due to encroachment on the land. Considered the costliest war for European Settlements in relation to population with Indian success during first year halted later when their alliances fell apart. Twelve towns destroyed.
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The Indian War, King Philip's War, between the Confederation of New England tribes and the colonists in New England ends.
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Bacon's Rebellion causes the burning of Jamestown. Nathanial Bacon leads the rebellion of planters against Governor Berkeley. Bacon would perish and twenty-three others were executed.
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Treaty of Middle Plantation signed between Virginia and the Native American tribes of the Nottoway, Appomattoc, Wayonaoake, Nansemond, Nanzatico, Monacan, Saponi, and Meherrin.
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Pueblo Rebellion of indigenous Pueblo people against Spanish colony of Santa Fe kills four hundred and forces remaining two thousand from their land. It would take twelve years before the Spanish attempted to recolonize.
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Halley's Comet observed by Edmond Halley, with accurate prediction of its return in 1758.
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The colony of Pennsylvania is established when William Penn signs a treaty with the Delaware Indians and pays for Pennsylvania lands.
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New charter for Dominion of New England arrives, granting Joseph Dudley control of English colonial territory from Maine to New Jersey after some of the original colonial charters were, or would be, revoked.
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Mutiny causes the death of Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle.
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King William's War, also known as the Second Indian War, begins, the first in a series of colonial wars between New France and the British colonies. It would last for nine years.
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The first newspaper issue in the United States publishes in Boston, the Public Occurrences. It was suppressed after its initial issue and the publication of a regular newspaper would not begin again until 1704.
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William Penn, leader of the Pennsylvania colony, creates a plan for intercolonial cooperation, first colonial idea for combining colonies into one nation, that would influence the drafting of the Constitution.
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The Plymouth colony joins the Massachusetts Bay Colony under a proclamation from King William III and Queen Mary II, losing its independence.
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The Salem witch hunts, spurred by preaching, results in the arrest of one hundred and fifty people and the death of nineteen. These trials were held in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex counties.
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Colonial Governor of New York, Richard Coote, and British King William III send Captain William Kidd on a mission to combat piracy, but by the end of his journey, Kidd becomes a pirate of the high seas. He would be hanged in 1701.
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Jamestown is abandoned after the statehouse is burned in 1698 with the colonial government moving to Middle Plantation, renamed soon after as Williamsburg.
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Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle, returns to the Americas on an expedition to establish a colony on the Gulf of Mexico, and urges additional outposts be built in Illinois and Texas to spread French influence in the central territory of North America.